Merry! Merry! Christmas!...Good Bye! - What Are You Playing v6

[Collectonian]

(continued from here (http://animeondvd.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/19477/))

Reset time! Wee! So, catch us up and tell us what game or games you are playing now (and how on earth do you guys handle two or more big games at once O.O )

Me, still on Shadow Hearts: FtNW. Soon as I can get a 2-3 hour block of free time, I'm hitting Purgatory, and then I should hopefully be able to finish the game this month! :sd:

[AbeChinchilla]

Got my clear data on .hack//G.U., Vol.2 // Reminisce so now I'm going to focus on Rogue Galaxy and DDR SuperNOVA.

[jecca-neko]

(continued from here (http://animeondvd.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/19477/))

Reset time! Wee! So, catch us up and tell us what game or games you are playing now (and how on earth do you guys handle two or more big games at once O.O)

Pretty much it's just like juggling. Have you ever tried juggling? It's tough but once you learn and get good at it you don't have to think too much about it.

I'm currently juggling Pokemon Pearl, Final Fantasy III, and I think I'm going to add Guitar Hero/Guitar Hero 2 back to the mix. I need to start working on my guitar skills again.

[Lovely]

Currently playing .hack//GU 2 and hardly sleeping because of it! WOO!!!

.....I get weird when I'm sleep deprived...

Frikin' love this game though :) .

[AbeChinchilla]

Currently playing .hack//GU 2 and hardly sleeping because of it! WOO!!!

.....I get weird when I'm sleep deprived...

Frikin' love this game though :) .

Yeah! I lost sleep over it too.

[Suwako Moriya]

All right then let's see here. Currently I'm still working on Xenosaga 3. I'm on disc 2 right now that much I'll say. I'm also going to be over time working on Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. Other than the random urge to kill a random final boss that's more or less it. So I guess not much has changed. It also doesn't help that my progress is going to be slowed down by well let's just say other things.

As for the idea of juggling multiple games at once. I find it usually backfires on me. Hence I only work on two games at a time. One being console wise and one being portable wise. Let's just say it's easier to move a portable system around than a console system.

Besides the whole mess around with a random save for the heck of it urges I sometimes have should give me enough variety anyway. Such as recently deciding to whack the final boss of Tales of Eternia or killing Mythe's final boss in Unlimited SaGa. All because I can.

[porkchopexpress]

Wow, I can't remember the last time I bought a "new" game.

Online I still jump back and fourth between Rainbow Six Vegas and Gears of War. Having great people to play with makes these games last forever.

Offline I'm playing Condemned, it was the first game I ever played on the 360, but I just bought it again used since I have a new part time job at Gamestop. I'm trying to get all the achievements I didn't get the first time. I'm also playing some backwards compatible xbox games I bought super cheap- Phantom Dust, Indigo Prophecy, Dreamfall and Manhunt. Also I'm still playing Phoenix Wright 2.

[Collectonian]

Pretty much it's just like juggling. Have you ever tried juggling? It's tough but once you learn and get good at it you don't have to think too much about it.

Nope, never tried it. I'm doing good to walk and talk at the same time :D I've sometimes done two games, but usually its something "big" like an RPG, while the other is more casual. Like now I'm playing Shadow Hearts: FtNW mostly, but sometimes I pop in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 and work on my career mode for a less time demanding bit of fun.

[ic14]

........ and another stupid title. Cant anything on this forum have normal titles? Jeez.

Uh, anyway, still making my way thorugh The Goddfather:Blackhand Edition on Wii. Keep alternating between advancing the plot, and going to business's and getting them to give me lovely protection money :>

Well by me, i mean me and the Corelone family, considering the cut they get (65% now im an "associate") :sd:

[Super Saiyajin Joshua]

It's still just trying to "Catch 'em all" for me. With a Dawn of War skirmish against my girlfriend here and there and my friend and I started a city on Sim City 4 but I only play that with him.

[ADC]

I have witnessed the horror: In Super Paper Mario, I'm at World 8-3. Princess Peach plunged to … well, not sure, really. And all to save that bitch Mimi. Problem is, I'm running low on restoratives (remember, I suck at twitch gaming). I can take the Return Pipe to Flipside, but it's a lot of running around to get back to where I'm. So I'm trying to move forward.

[MKVarana]

Lately, I had been bouncing between Super Paper Mario, Crackdown, and Guitar Hero 2, and now I just started up .hack//G.U. 2 and the Halo 3 beta. When I'm not at the house, I've also been playing Ryuusei no Rockman and Bokura no Taiyou DS.

[Johnny]

New thread, so I'll chip in.

Been playing the following of late:

Guitar Hero 2 (360)
Dead n Furious (DS)
Love & Berry (DS)
Naruto: Narutimett Portable (PSP)
Sengoku Cannon Ep III (PSP)
Bare Knuckle II (VC)

Enjoying them all to varying degrees. DnF proves that the DS can do lightgun type games and not fuck them up. Wasn't Virtua Cop rumoured to be getting a DS port at some point? Make it happen, Sega.

Guitar Hero 2 is still breaking my wrist.

Love & Berry is more or less completely impenetrable in terms of language barrier and the main rhythm action element of the game kinda sucks compared with Ouendan, KiraKira etc.
The card reader is cool though. I'm guessing if I was 15 years younger, female and Japanese this would be the best thing since sliced bread.

Sengoku Cannon is more of the same for the series but a nice PSP shmup. Naruto PSP is a decent game too but the story mode has too much unnecessary stuff and not enough fighting.

BK II is still one of the greatest games of all time with an equally impressive soundtrack. No change there then.

And that's pretty much it. Ouendan 2 should be here tomorrow/Saturday and aside from a few other gems during May, it's countdown to Trusty Bell for me.

[Collectonian]

........ and another stupid title. Cant anything on this forum have normal titles? Jeez.

I do normal titles...people complained about the boring titles. I do game related titles, people want plain. :sigh:

[ADC]

Guitar Hero 2 is still breaking my wrist.
Teach yourself to play GH left-handed. You just have to flip the guitar around and play upside-down like Jimi Hendrix. (Might not work out so well; some people are lousy at ambidexterity. But if it does, you'll get mad chicks, both British grannies with big boobs and blue hair and bar wenches who look awesome when you're drunk but turn out to be … well, British grannies with big boobs and blue hair. Sorry, chum, but most Catholic high school girls probably don't know Jimi Hendrix from Jimmy Carter.)

[Suwako Moriya]

I do normal titles...people complained about the boring titles. I do game related titles, people want plain. :sigh:

Actually if you want to get technical you're doing both right now. The first part of your thread title is the creative part. While the second part of your title would be the generic and plain part. In short it's the best of both worlds if you ask me. We get a fancy title and at the same time we know this is the sixth thread. Well at least the sixth one done by yourself anyway.

[ADC]

Out of sheer morbid curiosity. What's your methodology for making new What Are You Playing? Threads? I have not figured it out. Which confuses me in these latter days of post autobahning. Whatever the case. I decided to go back and do a bit of level grinding in Super Paper Mario. After going from 50 HP to zero in under five minutes.

If I keep changing all of my commas to periods. And I get a cute girl avatar. And change my name to some other girl's name. I could confuse the hell out of everybody. Especially Reirei.

[Johnny]

Out of sheer morbid curiosity. What's your methodology for making new What Are You Playing? Threads? I have not figured it out. Which confuses me in these latter days of post autobahning. Whatever the case. I decided to go back and do a bit of level grinding in Super Paper Mario. After going from 50 HP to zero in under five minutes.

If I keep changing all of my commas to periods. And I get a cute girl avatar. And change my name to some other girl's name. I could confuse the hell out of everybody. Especially Reirei.


Jesus. Good job man. I was reading that and wondering why he'd changed to your avatar...

[Johnny]

Guitar Hero 2 is still breaking my wrist.
Teach yourself to play GH left-handed. You just have to flip the guitar around and play upside-down like Jimi Hendrix. (Might not work out so well; some people are lousy at ambidexterity. But if it does, you'll get mad chicks, both British grannies with big boobs and blue hair and bar wenches who look awesome when you're drunk but turn out to be … well, British grannies with big boobs and blue hair. Sorry, chum, but most Catholic high school girls probably don't know Jimi Hendrix from Jimmy Carter.)

Fuck that dude. I'm hardcore! :D
I do actually think my wrist will snap after a while.

Re: the other stuff. Well, tbh, any girl I've hit on while drunk has turned out to look...pretty damn good in the cold, harsh light of day. (which reminds me - this saturday, old watch + drunkeness = she's gonna love me :D )

Ahem, anyway, nevermind most Catholic high school girls, I barely know the difference between Jimmy Hendrix and Jimmy Carter :D

I could quite happily play Dead! until I'm deaf and be content with the game, even if it meant not 'appreciating' some of the older artists. That said, where's that 80s song pack? I wanna rock to "I wanna rock"!

[Suwako Moriya]

Out of sheer morbid curiosity. What's your methodology for making new What Are You Playing? Threads?

As mentioned in a past thread, she's essentially restarting the thread each month. This thread was made on the 17th of May and the previous one on the 16th of April. Hence that should give you a time frame.

If I keep changing all of my commas to periods. And I get a cute girl avatar. And change my name to some other girl's name. I could confuse the hell out of everybody. Especially Reirei.

It still won't change the fact that only I can properly promote the wandering girl Tatyana Lasaiev while promoting other girls at the same exact time. Ah I just love how she gave me the perfect excuse to do what is now a tradition of mine.

[jecca-neko]

Guitar Hero 2 is still breaking my wrist.
Teach yourself to play GH left-handed. You just have to flip the guitar around and play upside-down like Jimi Hendrix.

I would attempt it if I could use the strap the other way. It's frickin' hard to hold and play a guitar standing up. Trust me, I've tried. :sd: Boo to Red Octane for not putting that there.

I am right handed, but I seriously think I'd be better using my right hand on the fret board.


Ahem, anyway, nevermind most Catholic high school girls, I barely know the difference between Jimmy Hendrix and Jimmy Carter :D

One's black, one's white. Kinda hard to confuse the two from that alone. :P

The most stress I get physically from playing Guitar Hero is my left elbow gets really stiff after a while. Maybe I shouldn't play for 60-90 minutes straight and take my hands off the guitar between songs.

[GHardin]

Lately, I don't think I have been playing much. Picked up Guilty Gear Judgment from CC for $12.99, so I have been tinkering with that while taking a break from SPM and LoZ. I can't complain too much in the end...maybe I'll just get another game. :sd:

[ADC]

It still won't change the fact that only I can properly promote the wandering girl Tatyana Lasaiev while promoting other girls at the same exact time. Ah I just love how she gave me the perfect excuse to do what is now a tradition of mine.
No, that's true. Of course, I haven't gone far enough on the path of 1337 to have a clear understanding of whom Tatyana Lasaiev is, so I won't be the one two-timing her with other girls, you licentious howler.

Besides, between Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Princess Éclair, Princess Zelda, Princess Midna, Princess Garnet til Alexandros XVII, Princess Ashelia … I mean, my princess is in every castle! So maybe I'm the spoony bard here.

[Jarred]

Guitar Hero 2 is still breaking my wrist.

My arm gave out last week after a long session of trying to get the 5-stars on Medium achievement, which I got but now I want to smash a beer in Reverend Horton Heat's face the next time I see his tattooed rockabilly ass. You're a dead man, you and all your Doc Martin stompin hooligans! You and your Psychobilly Fucknut song can piss off!!

Ahem, other than that I've been hooked on orb collection in Crackdown when I'm not dealing massive damage to the city while trying to take out gang members (got 4-star agility and defeated the Volk). Also been playing A LOT of Catan on XBLA, which I do very much enjoy.

Played a couple demos as well. Got on the F&F list for Halo 3 even though I've played about 15 minutes total in my life. Yeah, I sucked and really didn't enjoy a damn minute. I'm more of a Viva Pinata guy, the demo of which I downloaded this week and got hypnotized with for quite a while. I was so sad that the demo wouldn't save my little garden and all the pinata creatures. :(

For portable gaming, I'm playing Puzzle Quest on the DS, which makes for a great way to ignore the urinating and alcohol spewing homeless people on the bus during the commute.

[untoldsorrow]

I just picked up Ouendan 2 for the DS today and can't wait to play it. I haven't been in a gaming mood for the past month. Its either a anime or a game mood, never both at the same time so I rarely played at all last month and this month. When I do play, its either Melty Blood AC for Ps2 or Zelda LoTP for Wii VC.

[Suwako Moriya]

Besides, between Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Princess Éclair, Princess Zelda, Princess Midna, Princess Garnet til Alexandros XVII, Princess Ashelia … I mean, my princess is in every castle! So maybe I'm the spoony bard here.

Ah, but being a spoony bard is useful. That means when the girls leave their castles and come to kill you can keep hiding from the potential damage they'll inflict.

[Mateo_home]

I just beat chapter 5 of Super Paper Mario. Thoughts so far.

5-1-This level was kind of boring. It was nice to have another town in another level, I'll give it that. I hated that block puzzle at the end there. No one can memorize all of that. Heck, I forgot the order already. :sd:

5-2-Wasn't bad, I got to fight O Chunks again. I like to use Bowser against him just for that Brawn vs. Brawn feeling. My cry for Crudge was "Assface!". Kind of silly you need a Pixl to use the hammer compared to the previous games, but I'm glad IS didn't leave it out. Aside from that, nothing special here.

5-3-Now this chapter gets interesting. You meet Flint who reminds me of Kolorado from the first game. I had fun looking for his crew in this level. The mine cart was a blast. I liked watching it in 3-D mode. Funny the key was in Flint's pocket the whole time. Loved the music for this level as well.

5-4-Fun, but not as great as the previous level. I got another pixl (don't I have enough?) and got to fight O Chunks again. Damn, he fast! The portrait puzzle was easy to figure out, and the boss was....meh....

Aside from the levels, I'm having mixed thoughts on the control scheme. I think holding the Wii mote sideways is retarded, yet I'm having fun playing the game and getting some smiles out of the dialogue. But I should wait until I finish the game before I give my final thoughts.

But now, I'm off to continue the tedious task of leveling up monsters. :P

[kurage]

I just picked up Ouendan 2 for the DS today and can't wait to play it. I haven't been in a gaming mood for the past month.
Sweet - the song list looks totally awesome (Kimura Kaela, Hitomi Yaida, mihimaru GT, FLOW... :D ), so I can't wait to get my copy as well.

[Azumangaman]

........ and another stupid title. Cant anything on this forum have normal titles? Jeez.

I do normal titles...people complained about the boring titles. I do game related titles, people want plain. :sigh:
Don't worry, your titles are awesome. He's not the nicest guy in the world, is all.

[Collectonian]

Don't worry, your titles are awesome. He's not the nicest guy in the world, is all.

Thanks. Now the question is...has anyone figured out where this month's is from yet (without the aid of Google)? :D

[NickFalzarano]

I haven't used my Bronzor so it isn't a Bronzong yet. Does it have good offensive moves? I know it has ridiculously high defense from fighting trainers with it so I have seen it as a potentially very useful Pokemon. I did have a lil' bit of trouble with the last gym leader hitting so hard so I'm thinking I may want a good defense capable Pokemon as part of my team to go against the Elite 4.

Bronzor has a pokemon sucks, pretty much. The attack is horrible, but the defense is alright. Once he evolves into a Bronzong, however, his attack becomes decent and his defense is great. Looking at a move list, he doesn't learn the most powerful attacks, but that can be rectified with TMs.

[jecca-neko]

Guitar Hero 2 is still breaking my wrist.

My arm gave out last week after a long session of trying to get the 5-stars on Medium achievement, which I got but now I want to smash a beer in Reverend Horton Heat's face the next time I see his tattooed rockabilly ass. You're a dead man, you and all your Doc Martin stompin hooligans! You and your Psychobilly Fucknut song can piss off!!


I actually had no problem 5-starring that on Medium. I have 2 songs I haven't 5-starred on Medium yet, and that's Freebird (damn you, solo!) and Institutionalized (the tempo changes and the fact that it's the WORST SONG EVER don't help it).

I really hate Harmonix for putting Institutionalized in. It's not even a song. It feels like a typical teenager yelling at his mom while you do really stupid guitar stuff. Umm... yeah.

[Jarred]

Awww, no love for Suicidal!?

I'm happy that they included a ST song, but there are better ones they could have picked up. Institutionalized to me was always a goofy song back from their early skate-punk days, something not to take seriously. I still can't help but laugh at "All I wanted is a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me!!" :D

Free Bird is all about the battle against attrition and boredom. The song is so damn long that I usually get tired and lose concentration.

I'm at the second to last stage now on Hard, the set with Anthrax, Iron Maiden, The Rev, Rush, Lamb of God, and Stray Cats. This is the stage where all of a sudden the challenge just leaps in difficulty for me. I can finish three of them (Anthrax, LoG, Cats) but the others are quite painful.

[ADC]

Institutionalized to me was always a goofy song back from their early skate-punk days, something not to take seriously. I still can't help but laugh at "All I wanted is a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me!!" :D
That song just kills me. I've been saying that quote for years when I was thirsty and it never fails to net me a Pepsi — sometimes a Cherry Pepsi, which is even better! Good call on the ST.

[Suwako Moriya]

Thanks. Now the question is...has anyone figured out where this month's is from yet (without the aid of Google)? :D

I'm going to guess it's from a game that I'm unfamiliar with. :P

[Jarred]

Institutionalized to me was always a goofy song back from their early skate-punk days, something not to take seriously. I still can't help but laugh at "All I wanted is a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me!!" :D
That song just kills me. I've been saying that quote for years when I was thirsty and it never fails to net me a Pepsi — sometimes a Cherry Pepsi, which is even better! Good call on the ST.
Sadly, quoting "You're driving me crazy, INSTITUTION!" when your partner is asking you to turn off Crackdown doesn't quite work. I don't get a Pepsi, I just get the blunt end of the whooping stick. :D

[Mateo_home]

Completed yet another level of Super Paper Mario. Found this one to be a little more original compared to the previous ones with the same ol' -1 through -4 formula.

6-1-Ughhh...could they have made this level any longer? Nah, I should be grateful that IS didn't make this whole level a tournament like I thought it would have been. No one could have had the patience to go through 100 short battles. The pit of 100 trials might be different though.

6-2-Basically just a boss battle with Mimi. Was sort of a pain in the butt considering I was low on health and was low on health items.

6-1(again)-Sort of boring looking, but that's what the level was supposed to be, Nothing! Thought I was going around in circles for a moment until Mr. L showed up. Even though the pattern was simple, I thought it was a fun boss battle. You could switch to 3-D and had more than enough space to dodge the attacks.

The Underwhere-that title just sounds horribly wrong. But I liked this level. Dark and just being in the place where all the dead video game characters go was brilliant. And Luigi finally joined my party. Pretty cool he has the spring jump, and I noticed the he tends to skid when he stops, just like the old days. Oh, and I love that the queen's cell phone rings right when she's having a conversation.

Now I just have to get reunited with Peach and Bowser somehow... :P

[Collectonian]

After three freaking hours in Purgatory while on the LAST part before the save, I got surprised and everyone was defeated! :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

I thought I'd put the warning device on someone! :angry: Guess I'll try again next Friday unless I can find another 3-4 hours to kill during the week. :sigh:

[AbeChinchilla]

You should level up more!

I hope you have four Crucifixes as well.
One's outside the final boss' lair, one is in the Ninja Hideaway, another at the end of the Doll House and one in Garvoy Valley.

I'd recommend leveling up in Garvoy Valley (with Gold Necklace to speed up encounters).

[Collectonian]

You should level up more!

I hope you have four Crucifixes as well.
One's outside the final boss' lair, one is in the Ninja Hideaway, another at the end of the Doll House and one in Garvoy Valley.

I'd recommend leveling up in Garvoy Valley (with Gold Necklace to speed up encounters).

I do have four Crucifixes :) I might have been okay, except when they suprised me, they did a four way combo :(

[AbeChinchilla]

I do have four Crucifixes :) I might have been okay, except when they suprised me, they did a four way combo :(

Having Spikes equipped on all the characters with high SP (Shania, Hilda) would have helped!

[Johnny]

Anyone else got/playing Ouendan 2 yet? Got my copy this morning. After a fairly extensive playthrough today I'd say it definitely doesn't have as memorable a song list as the first game but is a worthy sequel to a classic, even if it is more of the same and still a little short.

[untoldsorrow]

Anyone else got/playing Ouendan 2 yet? Got my copy this morning. After a fairly extensive playthrough today I'd say it definitely doesn't have as memorable a song list as the first game but is a worthy sequel to a classic, even if it is more of the same and still a little short.


I've been playing it for about 2 days now. I'm only up to the 6th song. You are right though, the songs aren't as memorable as part 1. So far I couldn't get into any of the songs but hopefully I can later.

[Johnny]

Anyone else got/playing Ouendan 2 yet? Got my copy this morning. After a fairly extensive playthrough today I'd say it definitely doesn't have as memorable a song list as the first game but is a worthy sequel to a classic, even if it is more of the same and still a little short.


I've been playing it for about 2 days now. I'm only up to the 6th song. You are right though, the songs aren't as memorable as part 1. So far I couldn't get into any of the songs but hopefully I can later.


You managed to unlock any of the bonus songs yet? I've got a couple, Monkey Magic being the most notable but I noticed in the manual that Hyde's "Countdown" is listed but haven't played it yet unfortunately.

[Collectonian]

I do have four Crucifixes :) I might have been okay, except when they suprised me, they did a four way combo :(

Having Spikes equipped on all the characters with high SP (Shania, Hilda) would have helped!

I'll have to give that a try...I don't think I have any spikes LOL

[Collectonian]

Thanks. Now the question is...has anyone figured out where this month's is from yet (without the aid of Google)? :D

I'm going to guess it's from a game that I'm unfamiliar with. :P

Hint...it is from a PS1 game :D

[Johnny]

Just a few things I was curious about but didn't think they warranted their own threads...

Anyone else hyped for Odin Sphere?

For those that are also buying Manhunt 2 - PS2 or Wii version?

Sony Gamers Days vids etc - thoughts?

[machineger4]

Well, I just finished Crackdown five minutes ago so now I'm not currently playing a specific game. Still deciding whether to go buy Rogue Galaxy (any thoughts about getting this? I know Abe had good things to say in his thread months ago) or play one of the games I have at home (Dragon Quest 8, Suikoden 5, C&C 3, Lunar 2, and others), it all depends whatever motivation I get in the next few days.

But damn that Wang's tower, had to go up that thing several times after dying at the top. A few times then I said "fuck the finesse and playing safe, just go up there and kick the bastard's ass", man that was annoying. All in all, I had a blast playing Crackdown, and may play more of it since the harpoon gun is badass and orb collecting is surprisingly fun.

[ColoradoJim]

Just a few things I was curious about but didn't think they warranted their own threads...

Anyone else hyped for Odin Sphere?



I rarely buy new PS2 games these days without some sort of price drop but I decided on the spur of the moment to preorder Odin Sphere for several reasons. For starters it will probably go out of print quickly even for an Atlus game due to its release late in the PS2 lifecycle. It was also ten dollars cheaper than the normal $50 price for a new PS2 RPG. The screen shots look great and I always like anything even loosely related to Norse mythology. It doesn't hurt that it happens to be in what I consider the action RPG category which I don't have enough of and possibly will be easier for me to complete with the time constraints of the backlog.

I still need to find a copy of the repriced Atelier Iris 2 even though I still haven't gotten around to playing my Atelier Iris 1 game. The copies I see at local gaming stores are still at full price so the reprice thing must be on a store to store basis. Ar Tonelico is another RPG that I want to wait for a price drop on but it might go out of print as I've only seen it at Gamestop. My huge backlog of RPGs certainly doesn't help me in making my purchase decisions!

[ColoradoJim]

I've been pretty busy lately playing my DS games. I finally got around to finishing the first Phoenix Wright game and finished the knight character in Puzzle Quest. Currently I'm playing the 3rd case in the Phoenix Wright: Justice for All game and still occasionally going through the first Super Robot Wars:OG for the GBA.

Taking a short break from Phoenix Wright, I have finally started seriously playing Dragon Quest Heroes:Rocket Slime for the DS. I just got to the point where Rocket can call up his tank for the tank battles. It's certainly quite a bit of fun to play and all the puns are groan worthy!

I also dabbled a little bit into my recent purchase of Etrian Odyssey. I've named my guild Kimagure after Kimagure Orange Road and naturally my characters are from that show. At this point it has Madoka, Hikaru, Kyosuke, Manami, and Kurumi in my first exploration party. The graphics look quite nice, especially for the backgrounds. While this is an old school type of game similar to Eye of the Beholder or Wizardry, the mapping of the dungeons are a bit easier as you do have the option of automatically coloring the grid you are on and you can manually draw the walls and add stairs, doors and other info manually from an icon based drag and drop interface. Much easier than plotting the maps on those old engineering E2 pads! I've only played this for about an hour or so as Phoenix Wright and Rocket Slime are getting my main attention at the moment.

[SpaceButler]

Anyone else hyped for Odin Sphere?

I want to get Odin Sphere bad but I don't have the money for it right now.

[untoldsorrow]

Anyone else hyped for Odin Sphere?

I want to get Odin Sphere bad but I don't have the money for it right now.

I'm hyped for this as well. I didn't even hear anything about this until less than 1 month ago when I saw some screenshots in a Gamepro. I can't wait, an Action rpg from what I heAR.

[martod]

Anyone else hyped for Odin Sphere?

It looks interesting, although I really don't have any idea how it'll play.

[Chacranajxy]

Anyone else got/playing Ouendan 2 yet? Got my copy this morning. After a fairly extensive playthrough today I'd say it definitely doesn't have as memorable a song list as the first game but is a worthy sequel to a classic, even if it is more of the same and still a little short.

Wweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Back from my absence and my brief stint in time out. I needed an attitude adjustment it seems.

Aanyway, yeah, I'm definitely picking up Ouendan 2, though it's a bit disappointing that the song list isn't as memorable as what the first game had... because as much as I liked the music in the first game, it wasn't exactly all that memorable. Oh well. Isn't this game a bit longer than the first? I thought it was like 19 songs or something as opposed to the original's 15.

[Johnny]

Anyone else got/playing Ouendan 2 yet? Got my copy this morning. After a fairly extensive playthrough today I'd say it definitely doesn't have as memorable a song list as the first game but is a worthy sequel to a classic, even if it is more of the same and still a little short.

Wweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Back from my absence and my brief stint in time out. I needed an attitude adjustment it seems.

Aanyway, yeah, I'm definitely picking up Ouendan 2, though it's a bit disappointing that the song list isn't as memorable as what the first game had... because as much as I liked the music in the first game, it wasn't exactly all that memorable. Oh well. Isn't this game a bit longer than the first? I thought it was like 19 songs or something as opposed to the original's 15.

Haha! You got teh ban too then? :D

Anyway, yeah with the bonus songs included, this game is longer. I did finally find the Hyde song yesterday (it's the last song. Well kinda) but according to the credits he has another one somewhere.
The last level is legendary. It really is.

Plus that song near the end with the ice skating girl whose friend got killed by the car was a lot more emotional than it should have been. No crazy intro or anything.

[Johnny]

Anyone else hyped for Odin Sphere?

It looks interesting, although I really don't have any idea how it'll play.

It's being marketed as an RPG but in truth it's more of a 2D scrolling beat 'em up like Streets of Rage or Final Fight.
It's just that if they said it was a "New 2D side scrolling fighter" it would sell about 18 copies rather than the 200 it probably will.

[DiGiKerot]

Anyone else hyped for Odin Sphere?

It looks interesting, although I really don't have any idea how it'll play.

It's being marketed as an RPG but in truth it's more of a 2D scrolling beat 'em up like Streets of Rage or Final Fight.
It's just that if they said it was a "New 2D side scrolling fighter" it would sell about 18 copies rather than the 200 it probably will.

If it's anything like what I played of Princess Crown, though, it'll have a whole lot of (beautifully animated) walking around talking to people around the fighting. Even then, the actual stages in Odin Sphere aren't really as straight forward as just fighting from what I gather.

[Collectonian]

After three freaking hours in Purgatory while on the LAST part before the save, I got surprised and everyone was defeated! :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

I thought I'd put the warning device on someone! :angry: Guess I'll try again next Friday unless I can find another 3-4 hours to kill during the week. :sigh:

I did it!!! After over three hours of playing time last night/this morning, I finished Purgatory on the second try! I double and triple checked before going in to make sure someone was wearing a Warning Device for no more nasty suprises. I also changed up my party a little (replacing Hilda with Mao). The final boss too me over an hour to beat, but at least I did it on the first go!

After that, I found the stellar chart I was missing, but I was also still missing five stellars, so I ran around and got all of those (except one which will require me to reenter a dungeon to get, so I'll do it next game session).

I then spent almost an hour at the last lottery member to get Hilda's best armor (I nearly went nuts before I finally managed to hit one of the red spots).

Character Levels: 48 (Frank), 54 (Natan), 56 (Hilda & Ricardo), 59 (Mao), 62 (Shania), 63 (Johnny)
Game Play Time: 59:01

So on the next game play, I should be able to get the ultimate stellar, then attempt to finish this game (I hope!) :sd:

[Mateo_home]

Beat the next chapter of Super Paper Mario.

7-1-The shortest level ever. I was already here, so unless there was anything new added in the non-linear areas, then I missed it.

7-2-reunited with Bowser in the worst case ever. But what better way to have him rejoin than to beat him in the head. This level brought back memories from Paper Mario on N64. I liked the classic RPG battle with the chain chomps. I used Luigi. Unrelated question, but what RPG was it where you battle yet all you see is still sprites of the monsters?

7-3-Best level in the entire game. I really had fun with this one. Waking up Peach was great. My favorite form was her with the mustache. Another fun moment was that the apple to wake her up had a terrible tase This level also reminded me of N64 Paper Mario's Flower Fields level.

7-4-The search for the orbs was alright, but I coulodn't figure out what was with that Nimbi in the clouds faking an injury. It also had a star in it, so it gets points for that. The boss on the other hand was a dissapointment. Easy and uninteresing, but it was surprising to find out that Luvbi was the Pure heart.

After that, am I the only one who found it strange that the heart pillar just magically appeared after getting the pure heart? And I can't help but wonder how tough chapter 8 will be.

And on another gaming note, has anyone gotten or played Etrian Odyssey on the DS?
:P

[Chacranajxy]

Anyone else got/playing Ouendan 2 yet? Got my copy this morning. After a fairly extensive playthrough today I'd say it definitely doesn't have as memorable a song list as the first game but is a worthy sequel to a classic, even if it is more of the same and still a little short.

Wweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Back from my absence and my brief stint in time out. I needed an attitude adjustment it seems.

Aanyway, yeah, I'm definitely picking up Ouendan 2, though it's a bit disappointing that the song list isn't as memorable as what the first game had... because as much as I liked the music in the first game, it wasn't exactly all that memorable. Oh well. Isn't this game a bit longer than the first? I thought it was like 19 songs or something as opposed to the original's 15.

Haha! You got teh ban too then? :D


I still think it's funny and apparently other people did too because I randomly got like 4 friend requests on the 360 in the last 2 days. I'll PM you the details I guess.

[untoldsorrow]

And on another gaming note, has anyone gotten or played Etrian Odyssey on the DS?
:P

I was thinking about it because the cover struck me but after reading alot of reviews and opinions from people, it doesn't sound like my cup of tea. Its too bad though.

[Chacranajxy]

And on another gaming note, has anyone gotten or played Etrian Odyssey on the DS?
:P

My friend got it and I saw him play it for a bit... literally looks like one of the worst RPGs ever. It's like the devs sat in a room and considered what the best way to make a shitty game was and then the marketing team found a way to sell it to hardcore gamers who were blind idiots. It's a garbage-infused dungeon crawl with none of the niceties that the last 20 years of gaming has brought us, a ridiculous difficulty level, and absolutely nothing resembling creativity or quality. This may be some people's cup of tea, but really, it shouldn't be.

[Mateo_home]

And on another gaming note, has anyone gotten or played Etrian Odyssey on the DS?
:P

My friend got it and I saw him play it for a bit... literally looks like one of the worst RPGs ever. It's like the devs sat in a room and considered what the best way to make a shitty game was and then the marketing team found a way to sell it to hardcore gamers who were blind idiots. It's a garbage-infused dungeon crawl with none of the niceties that the last 20 years of gaming has brought us, a ridiculous difficulty level, and absolutely nothing resembling creativity or quality. This may be some people's cup of tea, but really, it shouldn't be.

Thanks for the advice. I'll be passing on this one now. Got a few other games I need to catch up on anyway. :P

[RedComet]

I've been playing Pokemon Diamond. I just beat Gardenia at the Eterna Gym.

[ADC]

And I can't help but wonder how tough chapter 8 will be.
Pack a lunch. You'll want as many restoratives as you can carry. If you have Barry, he's your best friend ever. If not, make it Slim.

And on another gaming note, has anyone gotten or played Etrian Odyssey on the DS?
I have it on order from Amazon.com because nobody in this shitsplat burg stocks it, along with Puzzle Quest DS (similarly not stocked). Will play it after I'm done with SPM. Unless it hasn't arrived, in which case Children of Mana still beckons.

[Nosredna]

I'm still playing the first Phoenix Wright game for DS. I just can't solve the last case :sd: .

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

In an attempt to try something different, I'm playing Thief: Deadly Shadows for the PC now. I really like the voice acting in this and sneaking around is really fun. They made the gaurds strong enough where you really don't want to get caught. I'm liking it so far.

[GHardin]

And on another gaming note, has anyone gotten or played Etrian Odyssey on the DS?
:P

My cousin bought the game, and he seems to be having fun with it. He's not digging the fact he gets owned and has to grind a hell of a lot, but it seems to be far from terrible as he's putting it.

[Persona]

Just finishing up:
Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria (outstanding)
Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (not too shabby)

About to tackle:
.hack//G.U. Vol.1//Rebirth (much anticipated)

[untoldsorrow]

Just finishing up:
Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria (outstanding)



Yeah, that game is awesome. I love Tri-ace and can't wait for their next game.

[HitokiriShadow]

Anyone else hyped for Odin Sphere?


After reading a bit about it, I decided to pre-order it about a week ago even though I really probably shouldn't have for financial reasons. I need to hurry up and beat Y's: Ark of Naphishtim before it comes out.

I made a little bit more progress in Y's. I mostly just farmed for Emel since the next level for my swords require 100,000 each. I also realized I could buy the +5 HP nut for 20,000 gold each. I had 160,000 gold that I had nothing better to do with so I raised my HP by 40 points. While farming for Emel in the cave, I acquired another 200,000 that will serve the same purpose. So, total, I will have bought myself 100 HP.

For anyone who has played Y's, is there an accessory at some point that increases the distance I can jump? Because there have been at least two instances in which I could not get treasure chests because there was no way to jump that far.

[Collectonian]

In an attempt to try something different, I'm playing Thief: Deadly Shadows for the PC now. I really like the voice acting in this and sneaking around is really fun. They made the gaurds strong enough where you really don't want to get caught. I'm liking it so far.

Wee! I love Thief, it is an awesome game. Great voice acting and pretty good graphics, especially for its age. Alas, I've never managed to finish it because I keep getting stuck in the same spot. :(

If you like it, there is a sequel, and I think Thief III was released fairly recently. :D

[hub]

Just finishing up:
Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria (outstanding)



Yeah, that game is awesome. I love Tri-ace and can't wait for their next game.

Ah, I'd call it one of their weaker games. The battle system is just as fun as always, but the story and the characters really fell flat (imo). At least Star Ocean 3, for all its problems (most of which I had w/ the story near the end...), had a likable cast of characters (my fav. being Maria). Can't say that there was anyone in VP2 that I actually liked...

But I actually tried to beat VP2 today but screwed up on the boss's final form, and seeing as how I didn't feel like fighting his second form again (damn crystal!), I'm going to hold off on it until next week or so. But is the ending worth it?

[Collectonian]

I just finished beating Shadow Hearts: From the New World, ya hoo! The final battle was a piece of freaking cake compared to the one from Purgatory, but I missed getting a snap of Lady (didn't realize that once I beat her armor, I wouldn't have any choice about snaps at all....grrr).

Final Game Play Time: 59 hours, 53 minutes, 52 seconds.

On the whole, I enjoyed the game and the story, but I must admit that compared to the first two, this one's ending was rather disappointing and blah. I was expecting something heart breaking, like Johnny somehow sacrificing himself to restore Grace, but in the end it was just....well, blah. The moments with Lady and Killer were sweet, though odd considering what they did and it seemed strange that if she was still human enough to love that she couldn't be saved any way beyond death. Though I guess in the Covenant, it ended up being the only way to save Yuri as well, so I guess it fits with the whole series idea of malice. I guess I just expected the end to be so much more after all the build up. In the end, I'd have to call this one the weakest entry in the Shadow Hearts series.

Gonna hop on YouTube, see if I can find the bad ending, cause I can't seem myself wanting to replay this one.

Not sure what I'll be playing next. Probably Final Fantasy XII.

[AbeChinchilla]

Not sure what I'll be playing next. Probably Final Fantasy XII.

Gross! No.

Try Rogue Galaxy or .hack//G.U.

[Lovely]

Gonna hop on YouTube, see if I can find the bad ending, cause I can't seem myself wanting to replay this one.


Indeed, I suggest that you do. There's only one small scene difference between the two endings, but I vastly prefer the bad ending over the good. The good ending was just to hokey for my tastes. (And just seemed out of character.)

It's a shame considering how much work it takes to get the good ending.

[Collectonian]

Not sure what I'll be playing next. Probably Final Fantasy XII.

Gross! No.

Try Rogue Galaxy or .hack//G.U.

I don't have either of those and I've never heard of Rogue Galaxy. :P My current game queue is Final Fantasy XII, Onimusha, Dead to Rights, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and Devil May Cry 1-3 so whatever I play next will come out of that group. I'm leaning towards Final Fantasy XII because I've yet to have FF disappointment ending wise, though with its length, I may be playing it till Christmas :sd:

Indeed, I suggest that you do. There's only one small scene difference between the two endings, but I vastly prefer the bad ending over the good. The good ending was just to hokey for my tastes. (And just seemed out of character.)

It's a shame considering how much work it takes to get the good ending.


Agreed...after viewing the bad one, I'm even more disappointed in the good ending. The bad was a little better, though what it will mean if they do a sequel could be interesting. Still, both are very disappointed. I had to go watch the good ending from Covenant just to remind myself that the first two games were as awesome as I thought. I think also part of my lack of satisfaction stems from this one being way too light compared to the first two. With its story line, it should have been able to at least hold its own with the first game, but it just didn't have that darkness, the seriousness that would make things like the sushi house a welcome respite, and while it had some good heart tugging moments, as a whole the story was fairly shallow and lacking in-depth.

[Mateo_home]

And on another gaming note, has anyone gotten or played Etrian Odyssey on the DS?
:P

My cousin bought the game, and he seems to be having fun with it. He's not digging the fact he gets owned and has to grind a hell of a lot, but it seems to be far from terrible as he's putting it.

Sounds like I might be having a second opinion on this one then. I have to admit, I like the chibi character designs and from what I'm hearing now reminds me of Animal Crossing. Watching someone else play it makes it out to be the most boring game ever, yet playing it yourself makes it more addicting than crack. That's the impression I'm getting. :P

[Johnny]

I'm not actually playing it yet, but Custom Beat Battle Draglade on the DS arrived today.
I've been going on about it a bit over the past few weeks and Siliconera (http://www.siliconera.com/index.php/2007/05/20/watch-controlling-custom-beat-battle-draglade/) have a great video up showing how the battle system works.

Came out last Thursday and will likely be overshadowed by a certain other music/rhythm game that came out then but it looks well worth a look.

On a related note, I accidentally ordered 2 copies and the second one shipped today before I could cancel so if anyone wants to buy/trade a new/sealed copy, gimme a PM.

[tuffy]

I've decided I loathe Final Fantasy's "active time battle system" and won't be buying anymore titles that use it. So, I've moved on from FFV to the infinitely more entertaining Etrian Odyssey, which is a nice Wizardry-style 1st person dungeon crawler with manual mapping on the touch screen. I wasn't expecting much more than that going into it, so I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't as "retro" as I'd thought.

Its deep skill tree is powerful and gives you more than enough rope to hang yourself with if you don't pay attention. My first time playing I allocated my alchemist's skill points to "Fire Up" and neglected any "Fire" spells, which meant he was very good at doing nothing useful. Allocate them correctly, however, and it makes a big difference.

The item acquisition is another clever touch. Monsters don't drop money; they sometimes drop body parts. You get money by redeeming them at the shop, which then offers better equipment for sale if you supply the right parts. It fits nicely with the game's "forest explorer" theme.

Granted it's an RPG with more "G" than "RP", but I like what I've seen so far. I've just beaten the first boss after only a couple of days and the difficulty isn't as high as I was led to believe. Unlike Wizardry V, I expect I'll beat Etrian Odyssey before long. Great fun.

[Suwako Moriya]

I've decided I loathe Final Fantasy's "active time battle system" and won't be buying anymore titles that use it.

I'm just curious, but did you try playing on wait mode? Regardless if you're intent on avoiding such titles. Then I can tell you that at the very least that 4-9 all use forms of the ATB system. So I guess you may as well avoid those ones. As for other titles that use ATB there may be more, but I'm not sure right now.

Still if one stops and thinks about it. All ATB really does is try to add an element of real time to a turn based system. Which I guess may be part of the problem some have with it. Since one could consider it kind of half-assed. There's also the unfair aspect of wondering why the boss gets so many turns while you're just trying to cast cure 3.

Then again in some ways real time and turn based may not be much better. Since in the case of real time there are times the guy may be too fast for comfort. Plus turn based can cheat. As in the boss purposely casts an uber spell at the end of one round, but then somehow casts the same spell at the start of the next.

Seriously that happened to me multiple times playing Final Fantasy Legend 3. Where at my current levels two attacks from Flare would kill the whole party. So when the boss decides to flare at the end of round A and at the start of round B. Well it tends to kill you. Yeah I know there is always the option of level up more, but still it was evil. Evil I say.

[tuffy]

I'm just curious, but did you try playing on wait mode?

I tried, but wait mode only waits while you're casting a spell or picking an item, in FFV at least. I even put the battle speed as slow as it'll go, but the system still irks me. If I give my party orders and the monsters happen to attack first, that's something I can live with. But having to keep track of what I want my characters to do while the gauges are filling (and then whacking out orders as fast as possible when they do) makes it hard to strategize - and that's the part I enjoy the most.

[AbeChinchilla]

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

THIS ONE.
THIS ONE.
THIS ONE.

It's only under 10 hours long, and it's awesome. And The Prince keeps stripping as the game progresses. Go, go!!

[ADC]

I've decided I loathe Final Fantasy's "active time battle system" and won't be buying anymore titles that use it.
Bummer. When Chrono Trigger DS comes out (let's beg the question a bit here; the project doesn't exist as far as we know), poor tuffy will be off in a corner, quietly shaking, muttering under (maybe) his breath. "I loathe ATB," (maybe) he says. "The rats and spiders will be my only friends. I don't need those AOD bastards with their Chrono Orgy." (Because you know it would be, now with extra humping.) "I'll just turn on some Brain Age II to wile away the hours. It can't take that long for them to finish that ATB game." What (maybe) he doesn't realize is that Chrono Trigger DS has a whopping 14 endings (up from nine) plus a bonus era after defeating Lavos the third time through. (Maybe) his loneliness extends from weeks to months as nobody will talk to (maybe) him about anything because they're all too absorbed in guiding Crono (or, as I like to call him after a certain event, Clono) and friends through the ages of mankind.

[AbeChinchilla]

I've decided I loathe Final Fantasy's "active time battle system" and won't be buying anymore titles that use it.

Too fast-paced? That's too bad. :\

[Isuzu Inugami]

In an attempt to try something different, I'm playing Thief: Deadly Shadows for the PC now. I really like the voice acting in this and sneaking around is really fun. They made the gaurds strong enough where you really don't want to get caught. I'm liking it so far.

Wee! I love Thief, it is an awesome game. Great voice acting and pretty good graphics, especially for its age. Alas, I've never managed to finish it because I keep getting stuck in the same spot. :(

If you like it, there is a sequel, and I think Thief III was released fairly recently. :D


Deadly Shadows is Thief III. The first two are The Dark Project (a.k.a. Thief Gold) and The Metal Age. I love the Thief games--definitely not a game where you can just hack your way through the enemies. Honestly, I prefer the first two to Deadly Shadows, though... Deadly Shadows seems like most of the areas just aren't that imaginitive, and all the areas are so small! Also, there are a ton of fan-made missions for the first two, so the thieving never ends!

[Suwako Moriya]

What (maybe) he doesn't realize is that Chrono Trigger DS has a whopping 14 endings (up from nine) plus a bonus era after defeating Lavos the third time through.

You forgot the part about adding in more side quests and a few new time periods as well. As well as the part about facing a much harder version of Lavos. One that would be make the version most people face seem like a generic normal enemy you face at the start of the game. Fear his 1 Billion HP! :P

(Maybe) his loneliness extends from weeks to months as nobody will talk to (maybe) him about anything because they're all too absorbed in guiding Crono (or, as I like to call him after a certain event, Clono) and friends through the ages of mankind.

Granted not everyone will be guiding Clono err I mean Crono. Darn it figures someone would use that name here. For you see I will be too busy playing through the seven quests of Romancing SaGa 3. Yes it's only seven quests. The pure evil quest doesn't exist. So there!

[Suwako Moriya]

But having to keep track of what I want my characters to do while the gauges are filling (and then whacking out orders as fast as possible when they do) makes it hard to strategize - and that's the part I enjoy the most.

Ah so that explains it then. You prefer having time to develop your own strategy as opposed to being forced to think on the fly. Either way in my case while I can't claim ATB is anything special it's something I grew used to over the years.

[tuffy]

Bummer. When Chrono Trigger DS comes out (let's beg the question a bit here; the project doesn't exist as far as we know), poor tuffy will be off in a corner, quietly shaking, muttering under (maybe) his breath. "I loathe ATB,"
Perhaps they'll add a better battle system when they remake it, just for my sake. ;)

Clearly Square's had a lot of success doing RPGs their way, and it's hard to argue with success. I'll hazard a guess that the reason they switched was to make fights more "dynamic" - perhaps catering to the crowd that needs something going on at all times. But the twitchiness of it turns me off for precisely the same reason.

[Chacranajxy]

Erm... exactly how long is it taking to make a decision on what move to make? I just can't believe that I'm hearing that the ATB system is too fast and twitchy. Wow.

[Suwako Moriya]

Erm... exactly how long is it taking to make a decision on what move to make? I just can't believe that I'm hearing that the ATB system is too fast and twitchy. Wow.

I'll admit that when I was new to FF4 and thus ATB in general it was kind of frustrating when the absolute dark substance wouldn't let up while I was trying to select commands. Granted it didn't help it took me time to realize that blasted thing was countering spells with spells.

Still in general I've found the way to deal with the ATB system really boils down to two things. The first being to develop basic strategies early on. Ones that can't be remember easily. The second is of course is to make sure things are organized as possible. The less clutter the better.

Heck speaking of the absolute dark substance one of the first things I like do before facing him is give up as many items as possibly. Only taking in the items I truly feel I'll actually make use of in the battle. That way I'm not scrolling through junk to reach something I actually need.

[Garasharp K7]

I'm currently playing Aliens vs. Predator 2 on the pc at the moment. I'm not overly fond of FPSers, but this is probably one of the most fun and frantic examples of the genre I've played. Since coming back to the game after a few years, I've no interest in yer Halos, Unreals, Counterstrikes or any other fps that doesn't allow you to play as a drooling acid-blooded wall-crawling space monster. We used to play it religiously in work back when it first came out, and since we moved office recently, it's been reintroduced back into the workplace. Productivity suffers, but we're having too much fun to care. :)
I'm ignoring the next generation of consoles and games for the moment and concetrating on older stuff I missed the first time 'round. Last month, I picked up some ps1 games - two Parodius games, Vib Ribbon, Ghost in the Shell, G-Darius, and Gamera 2000. I also dug out my old copy of Tiny Tank as well. I'd forgotten how much fun that was.
And just yesterday, I spent silly money on a copy of the Salamander collection for the ps1 too. Can't wait to play it when it arrives. :)

[ADC]

Erm... exactly how long is it taking to make a decision on what move to make? I just can't believe that I'm hearing that the ATB system is too fast and twitchy. Wow.
The irony is, I thought that the ATB in FF5A was a bit on the slow side. There are some times when everybody will kind of stare at each other while their ATs are charging. Bet tuffy'll hate FFX-2's hyper ATB. And that's a double bummer because that game was fun!

Back on the topic of tuffy, you might enjoy Final Fantasy X, which uses a Conditional Turn-Based system. If you can overlook FFX's numerous other near-fatal flaws, anyway (Tidus).

[tuffy]

Back on the topic of tuffy, you might enjoy Final Fantasy X, which uses a Conditional Turn-Based system. If you can overlook FFX's numerous other near-fatal flaws, anyway (Tidus).
FFX sounds promising, though I admit I'll have to acquire a PS2 first. I've been doing most of my gaming on portables these days and never got around to getting one.

[ADC]

Neglected earlier to mention that I'm taking the Map Quest in Super Paper Mario. It should help me get some levels and, hopefully, some big restoratives for when I take the plunge into World 8-3 again. I should have taken this on before starting World 8-2; I think all of the locales are accessible by Mario and Luigi, but Peach is so damn'd cute that I'd really rather have her along.

[Noodle]

Back on the topic of tuffy, you might enjoy Final Fantasy X, which uses a Conditional Turn-Based system. If you can overlook FFX's numerous other near-fatal flaws, anyway (Tidus).

*laughs out loud for the first time all day* You win. Thanks. :D

/end post of no significance.

[Collectonian]

Deadly Shadows is Thief III. The first two are The Dark Project (a.k.a. Thief Gold) and The Metal Age. I love the Thief games--definitely not a game where you can just hack your way through the enemies. Honestly, I prefer the first two to Deadly Shadows, though... Deadly Shadows seems like most of the areas just aren't that imaginitive, and all the areas are so small! Also, there are a ton of fan-made missions for the first two, so the thieving never ends!

LOL, see what happens when I read too fast! I haven't even managed to finish the first cause I'm too much of a "try and massacre my way through" player...so the guards usually toast me. My brother got through it though, I think, but not two LOL.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

It's only under 10 hours long, and it's awesome. And The Prince keeps stripping as the game progresses. Go, go!!

Stripping? SOLD! :virgin:

[Johnny]

So, I started Custom Beat Battle Draglade on the DS yesterday and I'm very impressed so far.

The best way to describe it would be to take a 2D fighter and mix in some light RPG elements and a rhythm action element.

The story progresses like an RPG with levelling up and so on but, in the couple of hours I've played so far, it seems like it isn't very open ended.
Combat is fairly simple (it's not as deep as, say, Bleach 2) with X and Y being attack with up/down + X/Y being a more powerful attack. A is jump and R is block.
B is your special which, at this early stage, is a fireball attack or a healing potion. Using these takes up Beat Points (BP), a gague that refills over time and when you attack enemies. Which brings me to the central combat element of the game. Pressing L brings up a series of dots in a meter at the bottom of the screen and X must be pressed in time in order to pull of a powerful combo.

I'm guessing that the combos and special items can be changed/upgraded as the game goes on but initially it works very well.

Best way I can describe it is like Guardian Heroes with a less deep combat system and more RPG elements in terms of travelling around.
I would say that this is the best 'underground' import so far this year for the DS and is definitely worth considering if you're a fan of 2D fighters/platformers or just want something different.

[HitokiriShadow]

I finished Y's: The Ark of Naphistim in Normal difficulty. I clearly missed a number of things as about half of my special item and accessory slots were empty. I may replay the game someday, but I picked up Odin Sphere today and I'm going to start playing that.

On a side note, I think Y's is the only game I've played in which every single last character is voiced. And for the most part, it was at least decent. Only a couple of characters' voices annoyed me and only one was really involved in the story at all and she had small role.

[ADC]

I'm in World 8-4 of Super Paper Mario with a full complement of Ultra Shroom Shakes. :evil: You don't marry off the Princess when the Wii Remote's in my hands, Count Bleck!

[ADC]

At the end of all, the only real bummer was that the game came out six months late.

Graphics. A few minor frame-rate hiccoughs while using Carrie because your character moves faster (might extend to Dashell, whom I didn't get), but otherwise quite excellent. The Paper Mario character designs are among my favorites in all of gaming, and the unusual spin on standard platforming provided by the 3D segments made this deliberately flat world extraordinarly deep.

Sound. It seems like the Mario sound hasn't been updated hardly at all over the past 20 years, and here we are with another Mario-sounding game — but that's okay! Part of the point of the game is the familiarity. None of the music really jumped out at me for being unusually good or gawd-awful. And thank the gods for Charles Martinet, who's got Mario's voice nailed.

Gameplay. Control is mapped really nicely to the Wii Remote as far as the main business of playing the game, but there are some issues. It's a pain to have to switch characters and Pixls via a menu; if the game had used the Wii Classic controller, both of these could have been handled on the flippers. And pointing at the screen to use Tippi could have been better done by moving her into place with an omnidirectional stick. When it really matters, though, the controls do what you want them to do.

Challenge. The real challenge isn't on the part of the (unusually easy) game; it's on the gamer. This is a game that rewards patience, a great departure from past Mario games which, courtesy of a timer, had to be completed quickly. Far better in most cases to be patient and take few risks. The handful of times I got Game Over, it was because I was taking stupid damage, not because the game was hard.

Story. Quite good! Mario platformers aren't long on story, and gamers who complain that this one puts too much of it between chapters and not enough as part of the gameflow have a genuine beef. It does appear that the creators didn't really know how to integrate an RPG's story into a platformer's gameflow, and the result is a lot of text. Those who aren't too impatient to actually read all that text, though, find a really interesting and terrific story.

Ultimately, I think that the gamer who goes in expecting a Paper Mario game might be surprised by the somewhat quirky gameplay, which does lead to the impatience and stupidity I mentioned earlier. The gamer who wants a Super Mario game will find him/herself swimming in as much text as all the previous Super Mario games combined. It was daring of Intelligent Systems to try to marry the two, and the result isn't perfect for every gamer. I loved it.

Graphics: B+
Sound: B
Story: A+
Fun: A+
Overall: ZOMG (out of ZOMFG)

It's the first must-own game for the Wii. Getcha some. And Peach is still moé. I only mention it because it's true.

[Chacranajxy]

I bought Taito Legends 2 a couple days ago (the fabled game that many thought would never be released in the US) and... uhm, yeah. I sold it already. Elevator Action Returns was a kinda cool game (apart from the massive slowdown), but apart from that, all of the shmups feel really, really weak compared to other offerings out there. Point is, Taito's games haven't gotten any better over time and I don't think they were probably all that great to begin with either.

4/10

[Chuplayer]

I've been playing Jet Set Radio Future on my 360. I'm about to get the last Graffiti Soul before that asshole steals them all and I've got to find him before he goes away for good.

[Johnny]

So yeah, I've been playing more Custom Beat Battle Draglade on the DS and this is definitely one of my favourite games on the system.

Manages to blend the 2D fighting, RPG and rhythm action elements very well and is just a joy to play.

Definitely one worth looking into and I think it would do well in the US.

[ic14]

Got Mario Strikers Charged Football a day early and have being playing it most of the day. Its good fun, and the online works well too (guess plenty of people got it early too, heh)

[Johnny]

Got Mario Strikers Charged Football a day early and have being playing it most of the day. Its good fun, and the online works well too (guess plenty of people got it early too, heh)

Is there much lag at all? I'm assuming it'll work ok playing against UKers with a US Wii/copy of the game.

Wasn't going to pick this up but when pretty much everyone I know who owns a PAL Wii is getting it, I thought I'd give it a go for the online element.

I probably should have bought Pokemon Battle Revolution when it came out in Japan to test the Wii online but didn't have Diamond at the time so didn't bother...

[Johnny]

I bought Taito Legends 2 a couple days ago (the fabled game that many thought would never be released in the US) and... uhm, yeah. I sold it already. Elevator Action Returns was a kinda cool game (apart from the massive slowdown), but apart from that, all of the shmups feel really, really weak compared to other offerings out there. Point is, Taito's games haven't gotten any better over time and I don't think they were probably all that great to begin with either.

4/10

I think I have this - this was released in Europe last March or so, right? Has Darius Gaiden on it?

If it is, it's a pretty decent offering and nice selection but yeah, there's only a couple of real must play games on there.

[Chacranajxy]

I bought Taito Legends 2 a couple days ago (the fabled game that many thought would never be released in the US) and... uhm, yeah. I sold it already. Elevator Action Returns was a kinda cool game (apart from the massive slowdown), but apart from that, all of the shmups feel really, really weak compared to other offerings out there. Point is, Taito's games haven't gotten any better over time and I don't think they were probably all that great to begin with either.

4/10

I think I have this - this was released in Europe last March or so, right? Has Darius Gaiden on it?

If it is, it's a pretty decent offering and nice selection but yeah, there's only a couple of real must play games on there.

However, in other retro news, Shinobi III is still one of the best 2D games ever. Man, this game is fun. It is, of course, part of the Genesis Collection, so go buy it before that thing goes OOP and you have to spend some asinine amount of cash on it on the VC.

[Johnny]

However, in other retro news, Shinobi III is still one of the best 2D games ever. Man, this game is fun. It is, of course, part of the Genesis Collection, so go buy it before that thing goes OOP and you have to spend some asinine amount of cash on it on the VC.


What, you didn't think I didn't own the MD Collection, did you? ;)

It was one of the main reasons I bought the Collection, even if I own the original MD cart and would buy it again on the VC :D

[Chacranajxy]

However, in other retro news, Shinobi III is still one of the best 2D games ever. Man, this game is fun. It is, of course, part of the Genesis Collection, so go buy it before that thing goes OOP and you have to spend some asinine amount of cash on it on the VC.


What, you didn't think I didn't own the MD Collection, did you? ;)

It was one of the main reasons I bought the Collection, even if I own the original MD cart and would buy it again on the VC :D

Of course I knew you had it. I was saying AOD as a whole, that they need to own it. No, I knew that you would've bought the collection on day 1 like all good people did.

[Suwako Moriya]

Messing around a bit in Immaterial and Missing Power forces me to ask a question. As it reminds of a certain problem I'd have in Street Fighter 2 and the like. The question is simple. Does anyone else find it easier to do moves on one side over the other. As in I find it easier to do most of the moves such as Ryu's Dragon punch on the first player side than the second.

Granted that's probably a sign I suck at fighting games and yes I'm out of practice, but still I do find it odd. Also I admit it has been awhile since I touched any version of Street Fighter. As for IaMP well I'll mainly just doing random duels so yeah go figure.

In any case a lot is going to be happening soon on the personal level so I have a feeling I won't get much gaming done in general and even if I do it will be a much slower process. So I have a feeling instead of completing Xenosaga 3 by the end of June it's more likely I'll complete it in 2008. Okay maybe not that bad, but still...

[Johnny]

Of course I knew you had it. I was saying AOD as a whole, that they need to own it. No, I knew that you would've bought the collection on day 1 like all good people did.

Ah, that's cool then.
Yeah, everyone should own that collection. Great stuff.

[Johnny]

Does anyone else find it easier to do moves on one side over the other. As in I find it easier to do most of the moves such as Ryu's Dragon punch on the first player side than the second.


Well I prefer doing moves in any 2D fighter on the left side of the d-pad...

[ADC]

Does anyone else find it easier to do moves on one side over the other. As in I find it easier to do most of the moves such as Ryu's Dragon punch on the first player side than the second.
Well, I can kick your ass from here to Belfast with Chun Li regardless of which player I am — but with other characters, I don't have as much confidence from either side. I think I prefer being Player 2, though, for the 'rolling-motion' characters like Ryu, Ken, Akuma; and I know I prefer being Player 1 for 'charge' characters like Guile and Charlie. Since 'charge' characters pretty much suck, though, I guess that means I'd rather be Player 2.

[Johnny]

Well, I can kick your ass from here to Belfast with Chun Li regardless of which player I am

That sounds like a direct challenge to me. Bring it! :D

[ADC]

Well, I can kick your ass from here to Belfast with Chun Li regardless of which player I am
That sounds like a direct challenge to me. Bring it! :D
Was actually bringing you a 2D fighter present in the form of a bloodied, dispirited Reirei, but as soon as Capcom brings out its online-enabled SF collection on the Wii, I'll get your friend code and show you how it's done. :P

[Johnny]

Well, I can kick your ass from here to Belfast with Chun Li regardless of which player I am
That sounds like a direct challenge to me. Bring it! :D
Was actually bringing you a 2D fighter present in the form of a bloodied, dispirited Reirei, but as soon as Capcom brings out its online-enabled SF collection on the Wii, I'll get your friend code and show you how it's done. :P

As long as it doesn't have needless motion control (pulling off a Hadoken with just a Wiimote and nunchuk could be awesome though...) you're on!

[Johnny]

Not exactly something I'm playing, but I managed to track down Mushihimesama and ESPgaluda posters for reasonably cheap today. Pics to follow...

And with that, I have my custom title! :D

[Suwako Moriya]

Was actually bringing you a 2D fighter present in the form of a bloodied, dispirited Reirei,

Don't even think about it or else I'll be forced to take drastic measures. What those are remains to be seen since I'm not allowed to post spoilers. :P

[Suwako Moriya]

And with that, I have my custom title! :D

Now it's just a matter of sending Chris a PM or rather a PT in terms of what your title should be. Don't be like some and waste the power. Either way I'll be shocked and disappointed if it's not game related.

[DiGiKerot]

The question is simple. Does anyone else find it easier to do moves on one side over the other. As in I find it easier to do most of the moves such as Ryu's Dragon punch on the first player side than the second.


Yeah, I have a massive preference for the P1 side/Facing right in these games. I'm pretty sure my brother is the same way, come to think of it.

My Ouendan 2 turned up today, so I've been playing that. Well, I was until my DS's battery ran out. I really need to remember to keep that thing charged...

[Suwako Moriya]

Yeah, I have a massive preference for the P1 side/Facing right in these games. I'm pretty sure my brother is the same way, come to think of it.

Heh it's nice to know I'm not the only one. Although it leads to frustrating situations where I keep griping whenever I end up on the second player side. As if the computer knew about my extra level of suckage on that side.

[ADC]

And with that, I have my custom title! :D
May I suggest "KuruKuru Prince" for your custom title. :evil:

[Chacranajxy]

Naw, Johnny's not doing something game related... at least, I doubt it. I think I have an idea though.

[Azumangaman]

And with that, I have my custom title! :D

Now it's just a matter of sending Chris a PM or rather a PT in terms of what your title should be. Don't be like some and waste the power. Either way I'll be shocked and disappointed if it's not game related.
Loafy's Gaming Gangster :D ?

[ADC]

And with that, I have my custom title! :D
Now it's just a matter of sending Chris a PM or rather a PT in terms of what your title should be. Don't be like some and waste the power. Either way I'll be shocked and disappointed if it's not game related.
Loafy's Gaming Gangster :D ?
Loafy's Joystick.

… wait. That's _Ty_. Never mind.

[Mateo_home]

I didn't finish the game, but I better respond before I forget.


Gameplay. Control is mapped really nicely to the Wii Remote as far as the main business of playing the game, but there are some issues. It's a pain to have to switch characters and Pixls via a menu; if the game had used the Wii Classic controller, both of these could have been handled on the flippers. And pointing at the screen to use Tippi could have been better done by moving her into place with an omnidirectional stick. When it really matters, though, the controls do what you want them to do.

IMO, better sales & scores or not, Nintellegent should have just released this on the Gamecube like they originally planned. They could have easlily released it on the Wii with the use of the classic controller. But then again, dopey game reviewers would be whining that it doesn't use the Wii's gameplay features. And I'm going to piss off a lot people saying this, but let's face, American Wii players just aren't ready for a Wii game with standard controls. Which is probably why Nintendo is holding off on a release date for Fire Emblem. Or better yet, SPM should have gotten the Twilight Princess treatment.


Challenge. The real challenge isn't on the part of the (unusually easy) game; it's on the gamer. This is a game that rewards patience, a great departure from past Mario games which, courtesy of a timer, had to be completed quickly. Far better in most cases to be patient and take few risks. The handful of times I got Game Over, it was because I was taking stupid damage, not because the game was hard.

Let me guess, you were trying to shake the right moment for points yet you kept taking damage by touching the enemies on the side? Yeah, I've been there.


It's the first must-own game for the Wii. Getcha some. And Peach is still moé. I only mention it because it's true.

I agree. Despite some gameplay flaws, it's still an excellent game.

I decided to take a break from the main story and focus on some sidequests. Basically getting Barry, Dottie, and Dashell. Yeah, I did Flipside's Pit of 100 Trials before moving on to chapter 8. All I can say is that this is the one field where SPM is better than TTYD. There's no turn based battles to slow you down. All you do is crawl in a LCD dungeon (think Game & Watch) looking for the enemy with the key and open the door. And like before, they do get harder as you progress. Floor 97 is a joke however. The boss Wracktail is basically the same strategy as Fracktail only stronger. And this time you can use Luigi's super jump to make the battle even easier.

All that's left to do is get back to focusing on chapter 8. *currently level 19* :P

[ADC]

And this time you can use Luigi's super jump to make the battle even easier.
That super jump is the god of moves. Luigi's vicious. And yeah, I was trying to get bonus points most of the times I took stupid damage, but there were also several times when I was just in a hurry to move on and didn't wait for the enemy to get out from under a line of bricks or something and didn't time my jump correctly.

[GHardin]

I keep getting more and more games, but no time to play them! Grabbed MGS3: Subsistence and Custom Robo Arena, if only because Wal Mart clearanced them out at $15 a pop. Didn't touch the latter yet, and really didn't get anywhere with the former.

Managed to get lucky a couple days ago as I was able to snag the last copy of Odin Sphere from my Gamestop (could have just waited until today and gone to Fry's, but I digress). I'm enjoying what I've played so far...the visuals are just striking. I can't take my eyes off the screen! :P

[Johnny]

Naw, Johnny's not doing something game related... at least, I doubt it. I think I have an idea though.

You'll find out soon enough. Chris has been PT'd. Now I just gotta wait until it comes into effect...

[ADC]

So here's the dilemma. I finished SPM and decided to move Children of Mana to the starting lineup. Then I got a box from Amazon.com with Puzzle Quest and Etrian Odyssey in it. And I'm thinking to myself, which one's first? I'm not that deep into SDCoM, so I can easily put it aside if the latter two are genuinely better.

Reirei's going to read this and flip. :P

[tuffy]

Puzzle Quest is addicting, but it's easier to play in short intervals since you can save anytime you like between battles and there's no penalty for losing them.

Etrian Odyssey takes longer to get started since your party starts so weak and you'll have to backtrack to town to save (at first). But I think it's more rewarding to see characters you've essentially crafted from scratch make real progress in the dungeon - which you've also mapped by hand.

I'm spending more time on the latter than the former, lately.

[Chacranajxy]

Johnny will be happy to know that I scored a copy of Ridge Racer 7 on Ebay for like $29 new. So yeah, price was good enough.

Also, my new 360 thankfully doesn't have that godawful power brick noise I was getting before. The manual still, however, smells like outsourcing.

[Nosredna]

I finally beat the first Phoenix Wright (DS) game, so I went back to the second one to see if anything becomes clearer.

[HitokiriShadow]

I picked up Odin Sphere the other day and I've played it about two hours.

From what little I had read about the game, I had thought that the game would allow you to pick one of the five characters at the beginning and then play through their stories in whichever order you chose, similar to SaGa Frontier. But instead, you start off as Gwenelda (the valkyrie) and at some point switch to other characters. While I've encountered two of the other playable characters, I haven't been able to play as them yet so I don't know how this will work.

I really like the combat system, though the very limited item slots will present quite a challenge. There are only 16 item slots, including whatever accessory you choose to equip. There are two aspects to level up: the Psypher (weapon and special attack) and your HP. I'm not sure if other stats (like defense) are included in one of those. Psypher levels up by absorbing little spirit balls from fallen enemies and HP levels increase based on the use of healing items.

I had previously mentioned that Y's was probably the only game that I have played in which every single character (unimportant random villagers included) was voiced. Well, Odin Sphere makes number two. So far, the voice acting is decent to good. I have yet to encounter anyone that annoys me or feels horribly off. Unfortunately, the game doesn't allow you to skip to the next line when characters are talking. You either listen to every single thing they say, or skip the whole conversation/scene. And I can hear my PS2 loading up each individual line of a dialogue.

Current status in the game: rougly two hours of play and I'm currently in Gwenelda's second level.

[Collectonian]

Well, I started Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time late Thursday/early Friday. Here it is late Friday/early Saturday and I just finished it! Dude, that really was a seriously short game. Mostly fun, though the unbalanced battles at the start are a little frustrating. The story is interesting, though with the length, it is shallower than I like. The bit at the end was cute, and it has a very nice ending theme.

All in all, though, this one has pretty much no re-playability since it is very very linear. Still, less than 10 hours of game play time to complete made it nice "mind candy" between the usual lengthy games I play.

[Suwako Moriya]

Reirei's going to read this and flip. :P

Wrong because there's no way I could do a flip! Either way regardless of what your next choice is we'll see if you're willing to commit to it or if you'll dump for some random new shiny you just met. :P

[Chacranajxy]

I'm sorta thinking about getting F Zero GX again... I used to have the game and I remember that I liked it, but I sold it... I forget why though. Anyway, is there a lot of meat to that game or is it a fairly bland racer?

[ADC]

Either way regardless of what your next choice is we'll see if you're willing to commit to it or if you'll dump for some random new shiny you just met. :P
So I played some Puzzle Quest this morning … from about midnight to four. There are music and graphics glitches from time to time and the enemy logic is tortured like a 13-year-old boy stuffed in a locker in the girls' locker room. (Poor little bugger.) But here I am, having played for four hours and planning to play a whole bunch more today.

[Mateo_home]

Wrong because there's no way I could do a flip!

You can't flip from 2D to 3D? So I take it your special ability is to float and block attacks with a parasol, breath fire, or perform a super jump. Sorry, I just had to say it. :P

[Suwako Moriya]

You can't flip from 2D to 3D? So I take it your special ability is to float and block attacks with a parasol, breath fire, or perform a super jump. Sorry, I just had to say it. :P

(Even without playing it I can guess the game being referenced) Naah those would not be my special ability. Instead my special ability consists of the following stuff.

Absorbing the souls of my enemies into my weapons. I can summon Mirages. A Black cat that poisons, a Nightmare that makes people sleepy, a Jackal that stops regeneration, a Cockatrice that petrifies, and a Reaper that well kills. I can also be gifted at a variety of magic. So there. (Waits to see if anyone can recognize this)

[tuffy]

Etrian Odyssey continues to pull me in and kick my ass. Allow me to relate a little tale of exploration gone awry.

Its dungeon has a lot of levels, and the monsters get tougher as one goes down. But, most of my party has reached a point where the stuff on levels 1-5 don't pose a serious challenge anymore. With this in mind, I decided to take some time to train up a new party member. So, I made a small party of only my landsknecht (http://www.atlus.com/etrian/etrian_1280_landsknechtD.jpg), medic (http://www.atlus.com/etrian/etrian_1280_medicD.jpg) and trainee troubadour (http://www.atlus.com/etrian/etrian_1280_troubadourC.jpg) . Less people in the party means more experience for each, you see. If things get too dicey, I can always use a "warp wire" to escape to town, or make for the exit on level 6. The whole expedition is a low-risk affair to kill a few re-spawned bosses and better map those upper floors.

After an uneventful trip down, my party's Technique Points started to run low at dungeon level 5. In Etrian Odyssey, TPs are a bit like magic points. A fighter's special attack moves use them, a medic's healing spells use them, a troubadour's songs use them, and the only realistic way to get them back is to rest in town. But I had enough left to follow a long unexplored tunnel to a small room and a bit of treasure. That's when I found a secret passage to more unexplored areas.

I didn't get very far before hitting a pack of monsters more suited to level 6 than level 5. Figuring it for a fluke, I pressed onward only to find a stair upward to an unexplored section of level 4. That's when the monsters got tougher still, and I barely dodged fights with two bosses. I'm not sure what those bosses were, but I knew I was out of my league. Time to use that warp wire and make a getaway.

Except that I'd forgotten to buy one.

At this point I could either press onward and hope to find a place where this new section of level 4 connected with the explored part so I could escape. Or, I could backtrack to that secret passage. With my blood pressure rising, I got back to that secret passage with a handful of TPs to spare.

That's the point I discovered it was a one-way door, and I was on the wrong side.

I didn't dare go forward, and couldn't go back. My small party was running on fumes and my only hope was to find another secret passage to get back out again. Did it even exist? How evil was Atlus? All I could do was check every spot this new area could connect with the areas I'd mapped and pray a new door would appear before my gang got wiped out.

Then, just as I was about to run out of possibilities, I found that miracle secret door. I hot-footed it to the exit on level 6, got back to town and saved. What a rush.

Etrian Odyssey brings back memories of all those nail-biting Wizardry sessions I'd played years ago. I hope there'll be a sequel.

[ADC]

My first Etrian Odyssey story isn't nearly as exciting — but then, it's my first story, which includes the very first quest. Anyway, my active party are

• Landsknecht Cid
• Protector Celes
• Medic Garnet
• Alchemist Vincent
• Troubadour Krile

which covers FFs T, 6, 9, 7, and 5. I did also create Survivalist Rose and Dark Hunter Quistis, in case any of my starting lineup prove unworthy.

I'll figure out which game is going to be my main distraction one of these days. They're all so shiny.

[Johnny]

I'm sorta thinking about getting F Zero GX again... I used to have the game and I remember that I liked it, but I sold it... I forget why though. Anyway, is there a lot of meat to that game or is it a fairly bland racer?

The Cube one? Nah it's a cool game. Personally I think the Wipeout series has the edge over it as far as futuristic racers go, but it's still a great series. Should be fairly cheapish now?

[ADC]

I'm sorta thinking about getting F Zero GX again... I used to have the game and I remember that I liked it, but I sold it... I forget why though. Anyway, is there a lot of meat to that game or is it a fairly bland racer?
The Cube one? Nah it's a cool game. Personally I think the Wipeout series has the edge over it as far as futuristic racers go, but it's still a great series. Should be fairly cheapish now?
I sort of enjoyed F-Zero GX (but not as much as the SNES game), but what I think it did best was show just how powerful the Cube really was. That game supports 840x480p, one of the few games I've found which really took advantage of the Cube's graphics output. There are a lot of racers and a lot of tracks, but I found that, unlike the SNES game, the CPU pilots in the Cube game are really good, making something so simple as winning a race or even finishing in the top 10 a ridiculous challenge at times.

[Mateo_home]

(Even without playing it I can guess the game being referenced) Naah those would not be my special ability. Instead my special ability consists of the following stuff.

Absorbing the souls of my enemies into my weapons. I can summon Mirages. A Black cat that poisons, a Nightmare that makes people sleepy, a Jackal that stops regeneration, a Cockatrice that petrifies, and a Reaper that well kills. I can also be gifted at a variety of magic. So there. (Waits to see if anyone can recognize this)

The Touhou Series? I haven't played it, it's just a hunch. :P

[Suwako Moriya]

Absorbing the souls of my enemies into my weapons. I can summon Mirages. A Black cat that poisons, a Nightmare that makes people sleepy, a Jackal that stops regeneration, a Cockatrice that petrifies, and a Reaper that well kills. I can also be gifted at a variety of magic. So there. (Waits to see if anyone can recognize this)The Touhou Series? I haven't played it, it's just a hunch. :P

Sorry, but your hunch is wrong. Although for all I know some of this could apply to the Touhou series. I do need to do a bit more research on Touhou in general, but I'm too busy staring at the images and playing random battles from Immaterial and Missing Power.

Now the real question is this? Do I drag this out and give more clues or do I just tell the whole world what game and what specific character is being referenced? At least everyone can take a wild guess and realize I'm talking about a female RPG character. May as well get the obvious out of the way.

[Johnny]

I've been mainly playing Virtua Tennis 3 (PS3), Railfan (PS3) and Blue Dragon (360) recently.

It's nice playing through BD again, although I could swear the game has been made a little tougher (less huge amounts of gold being gathered, tougher bosses etc) but that could just be me. I do remember a lot of people saying that they thought the JP version was too easy first time round though...

Railfan has surprised me at how enjoyable it is. I'm still at the training levels just starting, stopping to pick passengers up etc and it's tought considering I know nothing about trains and have no interest in them, but it's cool that it uses teh real life graphics so it's kinda like a tour of Tokyo...by train :sd:

Hadn't played VT3 in a while but picked it up a few days ago and keep going back. Definitely the best in the series, although I'm considering buying the 360 version as well for online play.

Other than that, my copies of Forza 2, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core and Biohazard 4 Wii are being prepared :D (although they likely won't make it until the start of June, ADC, so that lotto guess of yours may be in jeprody...)

[Chacranajxy]

What the fucking shit? Accent Core is "being prepared?" I really hope NCSX got the game and that they're shipping it out early-ish as well. I've been without any copy of Guilty Gear for so long that I know my skills are no longer close to tournament level... sigh.

Well, soon. Soon I'll have AC and hopefully there'll never be another revision.

[Johnny]

What the fucking shit? Accent Core is "being prepared?" I really hope NCSX got the game and that they're shipping it out early-ish as well. I've been without any copy of Guilty Gear for so long that I know my skills are no longer close to tournament level... sigh.

Well, soon. Soon I'll have AC and hopefully there'll never be another revision.

Yeah it caught me by surprise too. Oh and as for another revision, you could always buy the Wii version :>

Random and OT but that reminded me - did anyone else get Bleach PSP 4? Should have mine tomorrow and forgot about it a bit. Looking forward to it though.

[ADC]

Other than that, my copies of Forza 2, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core and Biohazard 4 Wii are being prepared :D (although they likely won't make it until the start of June, ADC, so that lotto guess of yours may be in jeprody...)
Oh, bollocks. You don't even have Memorial Day to fuck up your mail and shipping schedules. :sigh: Well, that's all right. I don't get Resident Evil 4 Wii until June 25 at the earliest, so I'll let it slide.

GOD! We don't even get the cool name for those games. "Resident Evil." Pffth. I scoff.

[Johnny]

Oh, bollocks. You don't even have Memorial Day to fuck up your mail and shipping schedules. :sigh: Well, that's all right. I don't get Resident Evil 4 Wii until June 25 at the earliest, so I'll let it slide.


Well today (last Monday in May) is a UK bank holiday so despite the fact I thought there was still post (as it's pretty much bank/government workers that get the day off) and there actually wasn't, I lost a day of potential arrivals for the lotto count.

That and I was also expecting quite a lot of J-porn too :(

[DiGiKerot]

It's nice playing through BD again, although I could swear the game has been made a little tougher (less huge amounts of gold being gathered, tougher bosses etc) but that could just be me. I do remember a lot of people saying that they thought the JP version was too easy first time round though...

I can't say I've had any problems at all thus far - all the encounters have been more than manageable, and I've had plenty of money to buy everything I've needed.

It could well just be you rushing things due to knowing whats going on and what to do already - I'm been spending my time killing pretty much everything, and I think I'm probably running a level or two higher than you at similar points in the game (based on what your online status has said when you've been playing it, anyway :sd: )

[Pachi]

Played through the rest of Super Paper Mario. Within are my thoughts and observations on all remaining chapters from Chapter 4 up, some of which is spoilerish I guess, but I'm only putting spoiler tags for a few certain things. Currently-at-an-earlier-levelers beware. Especially for Chapter 8. Sorry if it's a bit long-winded; this is how I like to explain my thoughts on games peice by peice.




Chapter 4

Best attack style EVAR. Squirps was weird, but his special attack rocked. What was really fun was to ride around on Carrie while shooting, like a little Pixl-ship. The annoying thing was in 4-3 how I had to travel so far just to get him a freaking candy bar. So of course I buy him the cheapest one, but he complains about being a fine diner! Lousy ingrate. Anyway, I really liked the Whoah Zone (aside from just the name). And I 'L-iked' the entrance of Mr. L, too. Kinda funny how Mario and the gang had no clue that it's Luigi. A standard, but fun chapter all around.

Chapter 5

For some reason I loved the Cragnons. They were so kooky. And Cragley brought back fond memories of Kolorado from the first Paper Mario. My only beef with the Cragnons was that I couldn't destroy their Floro Sprout-selves since I'd lose points. I thought the Floro-sapiens were a bit uninspired though, but it was nice to know that their kidnapping of the Cragnons wasn't totally evil, since the Cragnons had been polluting their water supply. Floro Sprout-O'Chunks was hilarious, and the second three-block code in 5-1 was ridiculously long to the point of annoyance.

Chapter 6

This is when the chapters really started to catch my attention. I thought maybe the Sammer Guys had some relation to Shy Guys or Hammer Bros., but apparently not. At first, when King Sammer told me I had to face 100 of his vassals, I thought that THIS was the game's version of the "Pit of 100 Trials" but of course I was wrong. But it really caught my interest when their dimension got destroyed. The aftermath of their world when you went back in was very plain-looking, but that's what you'd expect given the circumstances, and I liked it. Also, the return of Mr. L and Bro-bot! A little harder this time, but alas, Mr. L is no match for the Bowser.

Now the game went in a direction that I never expected a Mario game to go to - the realm of death, a.k.a hell. Or as they call it, "the land of ended games", or the "Underwhere" (ha ha). First of all, I like Dimentio's method of 'killing'. Trapped in a dimensional prism and then surrounded by dozens of explosions - you know that's gotta hurt. I'd still like to know exactly how Mario and the gang's games didn't end (well, I do know, but I didn't find out until Chapter 8), but of course we knew the REAL game couldn't end that way. The white death hands were really freaky, but this place was great anyway because Luigi finally joined my party! Life is so much better with high-jump. For now, Luvbi was a little annoying, and I like how the D-men were all walking around in slick suits like hell was a business. And the fact that Jaydes had a cell phone was funny. (I wonder if this queen has any relation to the Shadow Queen from Thousand Year Door?)

Chapter 7

I was kind of expecting the next chapter to send me back to the Underwhere, but I was glad I'd get to explore more of it. The Underwhere Road was annoying at first, until I got Bowser for lighting the torches. I honestly didn't expect him to be the "monster on a rampage", but it was amusing, and quite satisfying to kick his sorry butt once again. The door tests were weird, but my favorite was the Underchomp RPG-Gameboy-style battle. And since I already had done the Piccolo side-quest, it was a breeze. :) The Overthere I thought had a little too much contrast from the Underwhere; I thought it should've been a gradual yet significant change, but I accepted it. It was interesting getting all the different apples for Peach and trying to find the one that would wake her up. My favorite was the one that turned her into a Peachy Peach. I wanted to go pick it up, but she turned back before I could. XD My only real beef with 7-4 was that weird dude staring down through the clouds. At first I thought he was one of the three who was to repair the bridge to Grambi's home, but apparently not. I'm going to have to look that up online, see if there was anything significant to it. Bonechill kind of reminded me of the Hooktail siblings from Thousand Year Door, but with Luigi's Super Jump he was a little too easy. It was surprising however, and very interesting to learn that Luvbi was not Grambi and Jayde's daughter but was in fact a Pure Heart. It was a nice twist for the chapter end.

Chapter 8 (will be split up per section)

8-1

Not much to say except DAMN those stairs. I found myself losing a lot of health because other than Barry or Thoreau, there aren't a lot of good ways to beat enemies above you on a staircase. Especially the Flame Bros. It was good to see O'Chunks again, and the end of his fight made me smile, when he tried to keep the collapsing ceiling from killing us, and then Bowser aided in holding it up as well.

8-2

After what happened to Bowser, I could tell right away that I would lose each member of my party other than Mario one-by-one, but I was curious to see how each member would go. I got a good chuckle from Mimi's silly attempts to trick me. (even though I had to fall for a couple of them) Especially the "which of these things does Mario fear/hate most" questions, harkening back to Shy Guy's Toybox in Paper Mario. So in the third room, I ended up having to jump over a whole row of Mistakes. Better than a row of Amayzee Dayzees, though. I found myself taking a good while in the Peach vs Mimi fight. Not sure if it's because Peach does less damage than the rest or if Mimi just has a lot of HP, but it was tough. Though I'm glad in the end that Peach was kind enough to save Mimi from falling into the chasm made from the tremor, even if it did knock her out of my party.

8-3

Okay, Dimentio is a master of freaking you out. Most of the rooms were pretty standard Castle Bleck-fare, but the Dimentio mirror rooms were weiiiiird. The one where he continuously shot energy at me from all angles of the room was irritating. And in the second mirror room, when I went behind all of the mirrors, I nearly jumped when I found it was full of hundreds of Dimentios. Thankfully they couldn't hurt you so I just jumped and hammered my way over to the chests. I also found it interesting if only a little annoying how Dimentio made you chase him through all previous levels before you finally get to battle with him. Fighting him with Luigi was fun, because I was constantly in motion and Dimentio is a speed demon, so it felt more dynamic. But boy did that suck when he put us both in a dimensional prism and did a kamikaze.

8-4

Finally, closure! I'm glad that the game just didn't flat-out tell us that Tippi is Timpani and Bleck is Blumiere but instead left it as being simply understood by this point in time. I thought the Pure Hearts were overused a bit much, but hey, that's what they're for. Bleck was fun to fight once I got rid of his forcefield, but he was still sort of easy. I was very happy, however, when Nastasia protected Bleck from Dimentio's attack, because it felt like for the entire game she had gotten hardly any attention other than through her brief conversations with Bleck. I was dissapointed that Super Dimentio was simply Dimentio's being placed into a third version of the Bro-bot (I had hoped it would be more like a giant, monstrous version of himself), but it was still an interesting fight. I wish we could've gotten more backstory on Dimentio, to find out why exactly he wanted the Chaos Heart, but I guess the writers spent too much time on Bleck's motives and couldn't think of a good one for Dimentio. It was sweet, though cliche, that Tippi and Bleck basically had to exchange their vows, i.e. get married to stop the Chaos Heart. I was sad though; through this chapter I had really gotten to like Bleck, and Tippi got me liking her more and more ever since Chapter 3. I've already purchased Tiptron from Francis, but it's just not the same. Oh well, farewell Timpani. You will be missed.

The ending was bittersweet, but overall I liked it. There were flaws, still. Looking back on all three games as a whole, Thousand Year Door is still my favorite of the franchise. At the very least I have a couple things awaiting me in my SPM post-game: tons of recipes and the Pit of 100 Trials! Woo!

[ADC]

So in the third room, I ended up having to jump over a whole row of Mistakes.
I didn't even think to jump over the Mistakes. I went around them in 3D. :P Still, glad you enjoyed it. I think I agree that Thousand-Year Door was better overall, but SPM was a pile of fun.

:sigh: Now we just have to wait until (maybe) December for SMG.

[ADC]

Well today (last Monday in May) is a UK bank holiday so despite the fact I thought there was still post (as it's pretty much bank/government workers that get the day off) and there actually wasn't, I lost a day of potential arrivals for the lotto count.

That and I was also expecting quite a lot of J-porn too :(
D'oh! Nothing worse than the J-porn sitting in a post office where the disgruntled workers might want a spelunk before putting the cartons on the trucks.

I don't have any J-porn on order, unless you count SuzuHaru (which seems to have generated a lot of digital spooge over in R1).

[Chacranajxy]

So here I was, thinking about getting Super Paper Mario right now even though I have no plans to play the game for a while. Why would I do that? Why, because Best Buy has that lovely 10% off coupon that could've saved me $5 on the game. The catch? It expires in oh... 20 minutes now. So after making about $65 on Ebay today, I was sitting in my computer chair thinking to myself, "Y'know, that's the best price I'll see on this game for quite some time... Nintendo doesn't like dropping prices for at least a year." And I knew it to be true. However, I could not make myself get in the car and drive to Best Buy, because I was nagged by a desire to buy a different game. Senko no Rondo. Yet, Senko no Rondo weighed in at $60 and Best Buy had no plans to have the game until later this week. Such lunacy would force me to pay the entire $60 price tag unaided by a coupon. Alas, I had fallen to the lowest point. I scoured my wish list on IGN looking left and right for a game that would satisfy me as Senko no Rondo would. And yet, I found nothing but heartbreak and misery. Could nothing bail me out? I did not want to spend $60 on the game and I most certainly did not want to wait to buy something. I needed instant gratification... but how? I casually clicked on the Play-Asia window and noticed something in the corner of my left eye. Senko no Rondo... the US version. And what's that? That price. What say you? $49.90? Why... what a deal! That's $10 lower than retail price and the game came out not a week ago. Perhaps Ubi's games really do drop in price fast... nay, this was the work of God himself. I flung the game into the shopping cart as fast as I could get my hands on it (not quite literally) and was devastated to see that the game was out of stock. However, I could still feel the happiness of purchasing a game and I would most assuredly enjoy it whenever it was received. And after all, I was playing Rogue Galaxy at the time... I have no immediate need for a new game... I just want to buy something to keep me safe at night. I glanced again at the shopping cart, now in the checkout line. Coupons? "Hmm...," said I. I did a brief check on CAG and found but a single unused coupon code which I hastily applied, for the expiration date was May 28th. It worked. What luck! This brought the price of Senko no Rondo down to a most reasonable $44.90 -- a price I would gladly pay for the game had Ubi had the sense to price it accordingly in the first place. I was left with no questions -- no reservations. I placed the order and thus ends this final chapter.

Fin

[Azumangaman]

Fin
*sniff*Beautiful, simply beautiful *sniff*
Tell us how Senko no Ronde is. Because I must say, I'm tempted at $45.

[Chacranajxy]

Fin
*sniff*Beautiful, simply beautiful *sniff*
Tell us how Senko no Ronde is. Because I must say, I'm tempted at $45.

I really think this'll give you the best idea of what to expect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJZf4v0cNEk

That's what awesomeness looks like. But yeah, I'll post my impressions once I get it. Everyone who's played it seems to really like it, so it can't be too bad.

[Johnny]

Fin
*sniff*Beautiful, simply beautiful *sniff*
Tell us how Senko no Ronde is. Because I must say, I'm tempted at $45.

I really think this'll give you the best idea of what to expect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJZf4v0cNEk

That's what awesomeness looks like. But yeah, I'll post my impressions once I get it. Everyone who's played it seems to really like it, so it can't be too bad.


Beautiful story. Glad you bought it. I'ma get some practice in over the next few days in preparation for battle.
We need more though. See the light and buy this game!

And yeah, lemmie know how the subs etc are. Seriously tempted to rebuy, if just to support its Western release.

[Azumangaman]

Fin
*sniff*Beautiful, simply beautiful *sniff*
Tell us how Senko no Ronde is. Because I must say, I'm tempted at $45.

I really think this'll give you the best idea of what to expect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJZf4v0cNEk

That's what awesomeness looks like. But yeah, I'll post my impressions once I get it. Everyone who's played it seems to really like it, so it can't be too bad.
Wow. That looks pretty cool. When I get money, this'll be mine.

[Suwako Moriya]

After things settled down I made some actual progress on Xenosaga 3. Right now I'm inside Abel's Arksave at the first save point. In any case as decent as the third game is compared to the first two games (especially the second) it's also rather depressing in a sense giving the varying groups in story.

I'm now even more curious as to who the true main boss and final boss would have been. The ultimate villain that would be the last battle in the sixth game. Too bad we'll never get to see that unless there's some sudden revival of the series. While not impossible that would be wishful thinking and obviously not every attempt at that is successful.

[AbeChinchilla]

Replaying Kingdom Hearts II (Proud Mode).
Not as bad as the first time playing the game, but it's still a crappy game, and no-where near as good as the original. :) It's been over a year, I had replayed the first Kingdom Hearts over 20 times in that time-frame...

Currently have about 10 hours clocked, just finished the first chapter in Land of Dragons.

[Zanza Hiro]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/ZanzaHiro01/DSC00227.jpg

hurray! picked up Mario Party 8 this morning, and both Pokemon Diamond and Pearl! man, May was definitely a Nintendo month, can't wait to play :neko:

[Maru]

After 29 days of walks, feeding and care, my Final Fantasy XI choco is all grown up (http://home.mchsi.com/~maru/autumn_frost.jpg) :neko: Since I concentrated on his strength and endurance, he has more tail plumage than a normal chocobo, his legs are sturdier, and his claws curve up like talons. I'm still building up his stats for racing, but he does pretty well as is.

Also, I think I'm almost done with Final Fantasy III. I just got through Eureka; great area, fantastic music :) Ended up with a Ninja, Summoner, Devout and Black Belt, hopefully they'll be enough to plow through what's to come.

[Garasharp K7]

Fin
*sniff*Beautiful, simply beautiful *sniff*
Tell us how Senko no Ronde is. Because I must say, I'm tempted at $45.

I really think this'll give you the best idea of what to expect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJZf4v0cNEk

That's what awesomeness looks like. But yeah, I'll post my impressions once I get it. Everyone who's played it seems to really like it, so it can't be too bad.

That looks pretty spiffy. Sort of a 'Zone of the Enders meets DoDonPachi' thing going on there. I reckon I'll pick this up myself since I've heard it's region free.
Speaking of shooters, (proper ones, mind - none of that 'first person' guff) I had a go of Ikaruga for the first time recently. It's absolutely brilliant - tough as titanium-laced nails, but a fantastic game all the same. And now begins my descent into Bullet Hell...
Seems like I've been playing nothing but shmups lately - Along with Ikaruga, I've played the original Donpachi, Gamera 2000, and an odd little game on the ps1 called '70s Robot Anime: Geppy-X. It's sort of a cross btween Getter Robo and R-Type, with the game done in the style of classic giant robot shows. It has OP and ED sequences, eyecatches, next episode previews and even toy commercials between the levels. :)
It's a pretty big game too, with alternate endings and story paths, depending on which character dies during the game. (as most robot pilots often do) It captures that classic mecha vibe pretty well - here's some footage for anyone who's interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gj5RjBD10o

[Suwako Moriya]

Also, I think I'm almost done with Final Fantasy III. I just got through Eureka; great area, fantastic music :) Ended up with a Ninja, Summoner, Devout and Black Belt, hopefully they'll be enough to plow through what's to come.

More or less so long as you have one or two characters able to heal and properly use the classes you decide to use you should be fine. You could probably get by with one healer, but having two is if you want to be on the safe side. So yeah your party should work out fine especially if your levels are decent. Say the 50s or so which is where I was.

As for Eureka more or less I agree with you. I've loved the tune ever since I heard it in the NES version and the DS version just makes it even more awesome. It's the type of tune that makes you think about what the party has been through and must still go through. I like area tunes like that.

[Suwako Moriya]

So in the case of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance I've finally gone from going in circles to being well an err interior decorator. I'm not sure what to think about that, but at least I'm making some form of progress. Also on a side note one of these days I'll actually remember the spelling for the name of this game without having to double check. Wait why am I admiting this? :sd:

[Chloe]

Was busy last week. Finished River King on my PS2, playing the Mother, then she botched the cooking part! AIIIEEEEE!!! Gotta try that again sometime. Neat little game, great ambient sounds, good for relaxing. :)

Was playing Kingdom Hearts, doing pretty good, then ran into Maleficent's Dragon form Words cannot describe the ass-kicking I suffered. Going to have to level up some, and try some different things maybe. I know I was not properly prepared for it. For one thing Beast just gets eaten alive without fire resist, and I had their APs all in the wrong places. Still, it was the kind of beating that makes you want to take a break for a while. Happily my 6 year old niece likes to play it, so I am letting her do the leveling for me. :sd:

Doesn't help that I went berserk on my vacation, and bought like a dozen games. Started up, and am maybe 1/4 to 1/3 through Dragon Warrior 7, which has some of the most cheeky and hilarious dialogue I've come across in a game in a while. "What? You won't do it? Don't make me slap you into submission!" ...and that is coming from one of your *friends*. :roll: Good stuff,and I can't wait to actually get to have a class, making you wait this long in a game to choose a freaking class is indeed novel.

[Collectonian]

I'm now about 12 hours into Final Fantasy XII. Loving the graphics and the stories, though I can see why people say it is so long cause it is rather slow moving. My characters are levels 10-14, and I'm only just now heading into the Tomb of Raithwall.

I still haven't figured out how the whole mist thing, but I'm getting used to the battle system. Not sure I really like it, though. I don't like having only 3 characters except for when there is a guest in the party. And I usually like to keep one heavy magic user (in this case, black & white), one range fighter, and one melee fighter. But so far there doesn't seem to be any gambit to say "here, go attack with a mix of spells and ranged attacks." Maybe there is a gambit later that will let me get that back. Unfortunately, turning off gambits seems to be a recipe for disaster because the system doesn't automatically jump to each character waiting for a command. :(

[AbeChinchilla]

I'm now about 12 hours into Final Fantasy XII.

*Inhales*

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

We must save this child from the disaster that is Final Fantasy XII!!

[Chacranajxy]

I'm now about 12 hours into Final Fantasy XII.

*Inhales*

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

We must save this child from the disaster that is Final Fantasy XII!!

Better than .hack or the mediocre RPG flavor of the month...

[AbeChinchilla]

Better than .hack

Gasp! Oh, no you did-ent! :P

[Suwako Moriya]

We must save this child from the disaster that is Final Fantasy XII!!

Wow you're truly dedicated to this aren't you? Well either way I'm sure regardless of whether or not Collectonian finishes or drops Final Fantasy 12, she'll survive. Either way sooner or later I'm hoping to get around to trying Final Fantasy 12 myself. Still have to at least finish Xenosaga 3 first before I can even consider it.

[Collectonian]

Wow you're truly dedicated to this aren't you? Well either way I'm sure regardless of whether or not Collectonian finishes or drops Final Fantasy 12, she'll survive. Either way sooner or later I'm hoping to get around to trying Final Fantasy 12 myself. Still have to at least finish Xenosaga 3 first before I can even consider it.

Oh, I'll finish it. I have a hard time dropping most games. :P It has to be a total bug fest (Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness) or have me stuck at the same place for so long I realize I'll never get past it (Echo, Thief) before I'll drop it.

None of that so far in FF XII...though I have learned to be a little more selective in which neutral creatures I attack...I'm sorry doesn't seem to cut it :P

[Suwako Moriya]

Oh, I'll finish it. I have a hard time dropping most games. :P

Ah well in that case we'll see how things go during your FF12 Journey. In my case I more or less run across the board with games falling into one of the following categories. Before I start, I should say that since I only get 0 to 2 games (often 0) a month that kind of helps keep my collection and hence backlog from growing too fast. Which in turn helps to reduce the whole pressure aspect of deciding what to play next and hence making it easier to finish games in a relaxed nature. In any case here goes.

I've had games I've completed multiple times like Final Fantasy Tactics. Games I've completed at least once at a decent pace such as Tales of the Abyss. Games I've started, left dormant for a long period and later finished such as Grandia. Games I'm not sure if I'll ever finish such as Valkyrie Profile. Games I've never even started on such as either Lunar 1 or 2 and games I'm not sure if I ever will such as oh let's say either Lunar 1 or 2 for this too. Then you have the games I've flat out dropped and it would take a miracle to convince me to ever give them another chance such as Arc the Lad: Twilight of Spirits or Okage Shadow King.

[AbeChinchilla]

We must save this child from the disaster that is Final Fantasy XII!!

Wow you're truly dedicated to this aren't you?

Yes, I should be able to have my own opinions too, right? I think Collectonian is making a bad move by playing it. She can keep playing of course, since I have no way of stopping her or anyone else. Yet.

Blah!

[Collectonian]

Before I start, I should say that since I only get 0 to 2 games (often 0) a month that kind of helps keep my collection and hence backlog from growing too fast.

I usually buy 2-5 a year, with 06 being my first real game buying year in ages (bought 8 or 9 I think) :D Almost all the games I have, I either have played once or they are waiting to be played. There are only three that I have played more than once (both Lunars and Legend of Dragoon). For the started but yet unfinished (waiting for me to one day to it) would be Crash Bandicoot and Echo. Only unstarted that isn't in the queue is the next Crash (which requires that I complete the first).

And the only game that is a one that I just play as the mood strikes: Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4. Other than randomly playing Tony Hawk, I can't really get myself to play more than one game at once.

The weird thing is...with computer games, oh man I start and leave those all the time. Still haven't finished either Baldur's Gate after two starts, Diablo II still waits for me to remember it, etc etc.

[Suwako Moriya]

Yes, I should be able to have my own opinions too, right?

Only so long as they are approved by the grand council. Just be warned the approval process can sometimes take months. Something I've had to experience myself. :sd: :P

I think Collectonian is making a bad move by playing it. She can keep playing of course, since I have no way of stopping her or anyone else. Yet.

I wonder if I should be worried about that "Yet". Naaah I'll just ignore the dramatic music playing for some mysterious reason. Well either way think of it this way. If she enjoys it then things ultimately work out. If she ends up hating it well you at least warned her.

Then again warnings only go so far. Since in some cases I've enjoyed games I was warned about and well other games make me wish I listened to the warnings or wish I had been properly warned. However to be honest when I'm interested enough in trying a game I often prefer to just find out for myself.

[ADC]

Better than .hack
Gasp! Oh, no you did-ent! :P
I don't know if he was right (though I suspect he was; I very much enjoyed FF12, as evidenced by the 106+ hours I sank into it), but he was definitely correct when he said FF12's better than the random RPG of the month. I think you need to let go of the FF hate, bucko. ;)

Anyway, I made it to B4F in Etrian Odyssey last night. Compared to some of the other FOEs I've run across, Wolves really aren't anything special. Good thing, too; they're all over the place.

[jecca-neko]

Yesterday I acquired my first obviously hacked Pokemon in Diamond/Pearl via GTS. It was a Snorlax with a catch date of 2000. Ruby and Sapphire were not out then. I have caught you, Mr. Cheater Pants! :P Fortunately what was traded away I didn't care about and I still got counted as having a Snorlax to get my Poketch app that you need a Snorlax for.

Back to collecting Japanese Pokemon for my foreign dex entries. Wooo.... :D

[AbeChinchilla]

I don't know if he was right (though I suspect he was; I very much enjoyed FF12, as evidenced by the 106+ hours I sank into it), but he was definitely correct when he said FF12's better than the random RPG of the month. I think you need to let go of the FF hate, bucko. ;)

I don't know! I'm sure it is better than any random RPG of the month, but I shall never let go of the FF hate (sans X and X-2)!

I've clocked over 130 hours on .hack//G.U., and I'm only 2/3rd done with the series!

Hurry up with, Vol. 3 // Redemption, NamcoBandai!

[Lovely]

Better than .hack ...



0_0 . ..............................*cries*

Why? Why did you have to bring the innocent in on this? T_T !!!!! *goes into a corner to rock back and forth while weeping softly*

[Lovely]

Hurry up with, Vol. 3 // Redemption, NamcoBandai!

AMEN!!!! Though rumors say it won't be released 'till October *weep*.

(for the record, I'm not a huge FF fan myself, It's just not my cup of tea. But every time I mention that people tend to jump on me so I try to keep my mouth shut *shrugs*. And hey, I won't fault anyone for liking the series.)

[ColoradoJim]

I just finished capturing all 100 slimes in Dragon Quest: Rocket Slime for the DS. Basically all that is left to do is to beat the S mode tank battles as I don't feel up to capturing all the monsters to fill the museum with their statues. I'm taking a break from Rocket Slime though since I beat the main storyline.

Right now I've started playing the Marvel Trading Card game for the DS. Having not played the real card game, it's a bit of a rocky start for me but I'm catching on quick. I'd say it is about as complex as the original MTG trading card game and certainly the most complex trading card game for console or handheld and I have pretty much all of them.

The card graphics look just fine on the DS and the game is played in book mode which works fine for me. One thing is that you do have to pass quite a bit in stages but you can customize the auto passing steps but I have nothing set up currently so I can learn the game better.

I did buy the SNK vs Capcom game for the DS but I won't play that until SNK announces that the replacement games are ready so I can ship my copy to them and get a fixed version back. Naturally another card game I have my eye on is the upcoming Full Metal Alchemist game and the new DBZ game as well, both for the DS. They need to get serious and release a new Pokemon TCG for the DS as there must be a ton of cards now that weren't in the original game for the GB. Another I'd like to see is a MTG game for the DS.

[AbeChinchilla]

Better than .hack
Gasp! Oh, no you did-ent! :P
I don't know if he was right (though I suspect he was; I very much enjoyed FF12, as evidenced by the 106+ hours I sank into it), but he was definitely correct when he said FF12's better than the random RPG of the month. I think you need to let go of the FF hate, bucko. ;)

Anyway, I made it to B4F in Etrian Odyssey last night. Compared to some of the other FOEs I've run across, Wolves really aren't anything special. Good thing, too; they're all over the place.

Okay. I'm in the mood for a new game, and since GameStop is getting rid of their FFXII CE's for $29.99, I really can't say no to that. So when I get home, I'll be starting FFXII myself.

God, help me!

[Johnny]

So yeah, I found a cheap copy of Elite Beat Agents online the other day and thought I may as well cave in and buy it and...admittedly it is a lot better than I was expecting.

I still think the song list pales in comparison to the Ouendans, but there's some great stuff on here.
Have to say I now know where the 'sad level' in Ouendan 2 got its inspiration from. EBA Stage 12 is heartbreaking, moreso than its Ouendan 2 counterpart.

[DiGiKerot]

So, I was going to play Blue Dragon for most of the day.

Then, on a whim, I downloaded ActRaiser on Virtual Console and promptly lost a few hours on it, despite having owned and completed it on the SNES.

Fantastic game - just remember to increase the message speed. Having to read the explanations of the weather effects every time you want to lightning a tree get old very, very quickly...

[Johnny]

So, I was going to play Blue Dragon for most of the day.

Then, on a whim, I downloaded ActRaiser on Virtual Console and promptly lost a few hours on it, despite having owned and completed it on the SNES.

Fantastic game - just remember to increase the message speed. Having to read the explanations of the weather effects every time you want to lightning a tree get old very, very quickly...

Ah, that reminds me I need to buy it. My options for gaming later tonight are:

a) Actraiser and a couple other VC games.
b) Buy more from the Japanese PS Store (I'm thinking Dino Crisis and Resi DC even if I do own them on the PSone...)
c) Consoling myself with DoA Xtreme 2 (£7 new from Playasia, I couldn't say no)

Admittedly, C is only an option if I go out and get wasted which isn't looking likely so it's A or B unless I get stuck into more Blue Dragon or start some of the newer stuff that's arrived lately.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

I've gotten back into IIDX. Playing Happy Sky currently. I'm not that good. No AA's yet, but I'm working on passing everything up to Light 7k. Have everything passed on the 4s, working on the 5s now. Headphones help a lot and I've finaly figured out how to make use of my thumbs when playing. I'm hoping to be able to pass 9's by the end of the Summer, but let's see where I can go now.

[Chacranajxy]

So d'ya guys know what's a good fucking game? Rogue Galaxy. It feels like what Dark Cloud should've been... action-y combat that feels like a legitimate attempt at a battle system (a rarity for RPGs), lotsa customization, and a ton of stuff to explore. Everything about it sorta reminds me of Dark Cloud, but it's clear that Level 5 has learned a lot about game design in these last few years. I'm about 13 hours into this game and yeah, I absolutely love it. Highly recommended.

[DiGiKerot]

So d'ya guys know what's a good fucking game? Rogue Galaxy. It feels like what Dark Cloud should've been... action-y combat that feels like a legitimate attempt at a battle system (a rarity for RPGs), lotsa customization, and a ton of stuff to explore. Everything about it sorta reminds me of Dark Cloud, but it's clear that Level 5 has learned a lot about game design in these last few years. I'm about 13 hours into this game and yeah, I absolutely love it. Highly recommended.

Hmmmm, If thats the case, I might actually have to move it up my backlog - most comments I'd heard regarding it placed it barely above average.

[Chacranajxy]

So d'ya guys know what's a good fucking game? Rogue Galaxy. It feels like what Dark Cloud should've been... action-y combat that feels like a legitimate attempt at a battle system (a rarity for RPGs), lotsa customization, and a ton of stuff to explore. Everything about it sorta reminds me of Dark Cloud, but it's clear that Level 5 has learned a lot about game design in these last few years. I'm about 13 hours into this game and yeah, I absolutely love it. Highly recommended.

Hmmmm, If thats the case, I might actually have to move it up my backlog - most comments I'd heard regarding it placed it barely above average.

Bah, those same people probably went home and played the mediocre RPG of the month. Whatever it was that month. I can't remember. Maybe Ar Tonelico?

But yeah, it's good. Surprisingly well done combat system. The only thing that's a bit weak is the storyline as it's not as good as what you'd get with say... a Final Fantasy game, but that said, it's still sufficient and the characters are pretty interesting. What I like is how the chapters all play out like a story arc from an anime... but they're all tied together by the main plot... I guess it's one of those things that you need to see to understand.

[ADC]

Bah, those same people probably went home and played the mediocre RPG of the month. Whatever it was that month. I can't remember. Maybe Ar Tonelico?
Now that was a mediocre RPG. And there was no amount of cute girlies to save it from being mediocre.

Unless the player is Reirei. I think if he had a one-hand Playstation controller and Ar tonelico or one of the Atelier Iris games, we'd never see him again.

[jecca-neko]

Okay. I'm in the mood for a new game, and since GameStop is getting rid of their FFXII CE's for $29.99, I really can't say no to that. So when I get home, I'll be starting FFXII myself.

God, help me!

I thought FFXII was evil. Why are you giving in? There's other PS2 RPGs you could buy. :P

[ADC]

I thought FFXII was evil. Why are you giving in? There's other PS2 RPGs you could buy. :P
Hell with that, there are RPGs on other platforms you could buy. I say, who have disconnected my PS2 because it's not even being used. I doubt I'll even go back and pretend to play FF8 again until I get a PS3 (or Square remasters it). Still, there are so many PS2 RPGs which are utter dross, and FF12 isn't one of those.

[AbeChinchilla]

Okay. I'm in the mood for a new game, and since GameStop is getting rid of their FFXII CE's for $29.99, I really can't say no to that. So when I get home, I'll be starting FFXII myself.

God, help me!

I thought FFXII was evil. Why are you giving in? There's other PS2 RPGs you could buy. :P


Oh, ho. FFXII -is- evil. But I guess I should give it a fighting chance now that I own it (yes, I got it).

It seemed like GameStop was absolutely desperate to get rid of their leftover stock. There's something up when -USED- copies of the -regular edition- are $5 MORE than a -new- copy of the -Collector's Edition-.

[jecca-neko]

I thought FFXII was evil. Why are you giving in? There's other PS2 RPGs you could buy. :P
Hell with that, there are RPGs on other platforms you could buy. I say, who have disconnected my PS2 because it's not even being used. I doubt I'll even go back and pretend to play FF8 again until I get a PS3 (or Square remasters it). Still, there are so many PS2 RPGs which are utter dross, and FF12 isn't one of those.

I'm not saying FFXII is bad. I'm looking forward to playing it, but I'm being cheap and want to buy it for $20 or less brand new. It was just that a certain someone was so anti-FFXII for so long that it feels weird for him to break down and buy it.

[AbeChinchilla]

I'm not saying FFXII is bad. I'm looking forward to playing it, but I'm being cheap and want to buy it for $20 or less brand new. It was just that a certain someone was so anti-FFXII for so long that it feels weird for him to break down and buy it.


Used copies of the regular version: $35
NEW copies of Collector's Edition: $30

Of course I broke down!! Sure, I died a little inside too, but alas...

[jecca-neko]

I'm not saying FFXII is bad. I'm looking forward to playing it, but I'm being cheap and want to buy it for $20 or less brand new. It was just that a certain someone was so anti-FFXII for so long that it feels weird for him to break down and buy it.


Used copies of the regular version: $35
NEW copies of Collector's Edition: $30

Of course I broke down!! Sure, I died a little inside too, but alas...

I don't pay attention to the used game prices anymore. No one sells for decent prices. But I'm not surprised there's that difference.

And for the CE, the tin and that DVD aren't enough to make me buy it. They don't have anything really that worth it to me. So I'd rather wait until I can get the regular for $20 or less. If the CE drops another $5 I MIGHT bite but not for $30. Got too much of a game backlog and other games I want as is.

I hope you enjoy it so it doesn't eat your soul like you think it will. I'm interested to see what you think just because your RPG tastes are almost exactly opposite of me. I can pretty much guarantee that if you love it I'll hate it and vice versa. 'tis why I won't give .hack games a chance. :D

[Collectonian]

Okay. I'm in the mood for a new game, and since GameStop is getting rid of their FFXII CE's for $29.99, I really can't say no to that. So when I get home, I'll be starting FFXII myself.

God, help me!

Ha! And here I was thinking you were warning me away from it because you'd played it and hated it :P

[AbeChinchilla]

Okay. I'm in the mood for a new game, and since GameStop is getting rid of their FFXII CE's for $29.99, I really can't say no to that. So when I get home, I'll be starting FFXII myself.

God, help me!

Ha! And here I was thinking you were warning me away from it because you'd played it and hated it :P

I've played it... God forbid I ever buy it... oh, wait...

[Suwako Moriya]

Unless the player is Reirei. I think if he had a one-hand Playstation controller and Ar tonelico or one of the Atelier Iris games, we'd never see him again.

For the record I have yet to get Ar Tonelico. It's something I want to get, but not until there is a price drop. Same for the third Atelier Iris game. However I do have the first two games. So perhaps I could alternate. Also part of me is wondering if I should take this as an indirect recommendation for Ar Tonelico. :P :>

Note to self: Remember to decide on a new name in June and see what nickname ADC comes up with for it.

[AbeChinchilla]

I hope you enjoy it so it doesn't eat your soul like you think it will. I'm interested to see what you think just because your RPG tastes are almost exactly opposite of me. I can pretty much guarantee that if you love it I'll hate it and vice versa. 'tis why I won't give .hack games a chance. :D

I love it, I love it, I love it!

Shadow Hearts is crap!

... Did it work?

[Johnny]

Okay. I'm in the mood for a new game, and since GameStop is getting rid of their FFXII CE's for $29.99, I really can't say no to that. So when I get home, I'll be starting FFXII myself.

God, help me!

I thought FFXII was evil. Why are you giving in? There's other PS2 RPGs you could buy. :P


Like Dragon Quest VIII. Don't get me wrong, I'm a FF fan, but XII was awful and DQ VIII shits all over it from a great height.
Don't make johnny cry, buy Dragon Quest VIII and you'll have the best PS2 RPG.

[SpaceButler]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a FF fan, but XII was awful and DQ VIII shits all over it from a great height.

LMFAO! Whew... Ok. Yeah I totally agree with this statement. FFXII sucks in all sorts of ways.

[DiGiKerot]

Like Dragon Quest VIII. Don't get me wrong, I'm a FF fan, but XII was awful and DQ VIII shits all over it from a great height.
Don't make johnny cry, buy Dragon Quest VIII and you'll have the best PS2 RPG.

Oh, FFXII isn't that bad. It's frequently annoyingly longwinded, and the story doesn't really go anywhere, but it's alright.

As for DQVIII, it's frequently annoyingly longwinded, and the story doesn't really go anywhere, but it's alright.

Errrr, hang on a moment :sd:

Seriously, though, I don't think either are particularly great games. They both have their nice ideas, but the execution of both is kind of lacking in places. Whilst some of the "flavour-of-the-month" RPGs are considerably less ambitious, the best of them at least tend to implement what they do have entirely competently.

[SpaceButler]

As for DQVIII, it's frequently annoyingly longwinded, and the story doesn't really go anywhere, but it's alright.

Ya, but DQVIII has the gameplay and fun-factor elements locked down.

[DiGiKerot]

As for DQVIII, it's frequently annoyingly longwinded, and the story doesn't really go anywhere, but it's alright.

Ya, but DQVIII has the gameplay and fun-factor elements locked down.

That's debatable. At least in FFXII, you could at least avoid encounters on your oh-so-long hikes between locations. In DQVIII it's all random encounters, forcing you to play that combat system which really is in dire need of an overhaul (I'm kind of disappointed they seem to have gone backwards on what they were doing on DQIX), which I quickly found got really, really old. It's certainly not my idea of "fun" anyway.

[SpaceButler]

Well I thought DQ was fun. :( I don't see why it has to change to be better. The battle system suits my tastes just fine. And as for the random battles, I guess they don't bother me cause I like the old school combat.

[DiGiKerot]

Well I thought DQ was fun. :( I don't see why it has to change to be better. The battle system suits my tastes just fine. And as for the random battles, I guess they don't bother me cause I like the old school combat.

Mileage will vary, I guess. I mean, I don't mind old-school combat, but DQVIII just felt like one of those games where I half-heartedly ended up pressing the same options again and again, using pretty much the same tactics for every single battle. To be honest, I prefer games which fewer encounters where you actually have to put a bit more thought into what you are doing.

As for the random encounters, it just feels like it's at odds with the rest of the game design. It's fine when it's just confined to a dungeon or some kind of abstract world map, but in DQVIII everything was 1:1 scale. Given that they've rendered the whole world map right down having every last tree, the fact that you can't see the monsters on it seems just plain odd. Well, and the fact that it meant you have that much more travel time in which you could have random encounters just served to increasingly annoy me.

In the end, I don't even think I actually finished the game - I got fifty hours or so in and just couldn't take any more of it.

[AbeChinchilla]

I'll start off by saying I haven't given up on the game yet, but I put in a good two hours last night and was greatly disappointed in Final Fantasy XII.

First, the nitpicks (well, according to my XII-lovin' friend, I'm simply being anal about these).

Screen Position
I can't get it where I'd like it. Too high, means I can actually see my characters' HP/MP, but I can't see the "Help" in Party Menu. I can see my Play Time.
Too low means I can't see my characters' HP/MP, but I can see the "Help" in Party Menu. I can't see my Play Time.

Camera Config?
I hate the right analog stick used for the camera being inverted. It makes looking around very frustrating and I actually got a headache from it. There doesn't appear to be any way to fix this.

Now, onto the actual game.

They made it quite clear in the tutorial that I really don't have to do anything during battle. How boring.

The first city is WAY too big. I thought Rogue Galaxy had some massive towns and cities, but this is just ridiculous. I didn't even feel like talking to the NPCs. Too many with very little to say. One guy told me I look a lot like my older brother. What a jerk! How can you say that?! The only person worth talking to... charged me 1 GIL to speak up.

I hate the blue/red orbs allowing/blocking passage. If people can complain about games having invisible walls (unable to pass through), then I can complain about this.

The bounty quests thing sounds really silly.

What I do like so far is the License menu. As retarded as it is to have to get a license to use magic (what's with all the mispellings? Yes, I know it's intentional, but it's ridiculous). And equipment too? Wow. Yet I still like it? Well, it's going to be fun, and kind of reminds me of the fabulous Sphere Grid from the glorious Final Fantasy X.

The reason why I am disappointed is that I spent two hours and I feel like I've accomplished NOTHING. That's not the best way to start off a game. I can easily name many examples of how a game SHOULD make you feel accomplished even after a short amount of time.

That's all.

[ADC]

Screen Position
I can't get it where I'd like it. Too high, means I can actually see my characters' HP/MP, but I can't see the "Help" in Party Menu. I can see my Play Time.
Too low means I can't see my characters' HP/MP, but I can see the "Help" in Party Menu. I can't see my Play Time.
The solution? Buy a real TV which doesn't cut off the edges of your screen, you Luddite. What the hell is it, an Electrolux? You give geekdom a worse name than it already has by playing PS2 games on a TV like that. :sigh: Here (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8250144&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat95100050006&id=1169512290376), stop embarrassing us. :P

[AbeChinchilla]

The solution? Buy a real TV which doesn't cut off the edges of your screen, you Luddite. What the hell is it, an Electrolux? You give geekdom a worse name than it already has by playing PS2 games on a TV like that. :sigh: Here (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8250144&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat95100050006&id=1169512290376), stop embarrassing us. :P

Hahaha. That TV is exactly what I'd like and need, I'll have to keep it in mind next time.

[jecca-neko]

Screen Position
I can't get it where I'd like it. Too high, means I can actually see my characters' HP/MP, but I can't see the "Help" in Party Menu. I can see my Play Time.
Too low means I can't see my characters' HP/MP, but I can see the "Help" in Party Menu. I can't see my Play Time.
The solution? Buy a real TV which doesn't cut off the edges of your screen, you Luddite. What the hell is it, an Electrolux? You give geekdom a worse name than it already has by playing PS2 games on a TV like that. :sigh: Here (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8250144&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat95100050006&id=1169512290376), stop embarrassing us. :P

'xactly. The last TV I had that cut off things was this 11" (? It was small) CRT TV my mom bought for me at Wal-mart or some place for $100 when I was maybe 13. It had only one speaker and for whatever reason liked to show HBO with high red saturation. Every other channel was fine, so if I was watching a movie on HBO I had to adjust the color for it and then adjust it back. It also sucked in that it required me to buy an RF cable for everything. Playing PS2 on RF is annoying.

If you don't have much money, just not buy games for a little while. A nice TV is worth it. :D

But then again I'm spoiled enough that playing video games over someone else's house sucks. Most people I know still have crappy CRT TVs and it makes my eyes burn. :P

[AbeChinchilla]

If you don't have much money, just not buy games for a little while. A nice TV is worth it. :D

Well, it's not that I wouldn't want a nice TV (I've been wanting an LCD widescreen for a while), but I never had any real problems with the TV I have now. Sure it's a tube (bleh), but it's 30", which recently appears to be "big" for a TV when compared to my friends who all have these very tiny TVs (How do they watch anything on them?!). I suppose I'd like to utilize the widescreen option for FFXII, among a few other games that have the feature.

[Suwako Moriya]

They made it quite clear in the tutorial that I really don't have to do anything during battle. How boring.

If you're talking about the Gambit system, I've heard some people suggest turning off Gambits if you don't care for the idea of auto-battles or want to control all members instead of just one.

[Azumangaman]

I feel bad for people that don't have teh sex TV's. We have a 56-inch Pioneer HDTV Rear-Projection (old but sexy) and we're getting a 50inch Pioneer plasma for the basement at some point.
Games look hawt (although I've never played PS2 in component-so sad).

[AbeChinchilla]

They made it quite clear in the tutorial that I really don't have to do anything during battle. How boring.

If you're talking about the Gambit system, I've heard some people suggest turning off Gambits if you don't care for the idea of auto-battles or want to control all members instead of just one.


I wasn't talking about the Gambits, as I don't even have multiple party members yet. I remember greatly disliking them in the demo though. I will probably try it without Gambits on, but it could also be a pain.

I mean that you could literally just walk up (or allow the enemy to walk up to you) and you'll just keep attacking until the enemy is dead.

[Suwako Moriya]

I mean that you could literally just walk up (or allow the enemy to walk up to you) and you'll just keep attacking until the enemy is dead.

Okay then something about that sounds rather silly to me.

[Collectonian]

Well, it's not that I wouldn't want a nice TV (I've been wanting an LCD widescreen for a while), but I never had any real problems with the TV I have now. Sure it's a tube (bleh), but it's 30"

You have a 30" TV and it's still cutting stuff off? I have a 31" regular tube TV and didn't have to adjust the screen position at all. Everything is showing very nicely.

I mean that you could literally just walk up (or allow the enemy to walk up to you) and you'll just keep attacking until the enemy is dead.

How odd...when I play, if I don't tell my main character to do anything, he'll pull his weapon, but that's about it.

[TheGreenMan]

Odin Sphere. It's pretty awesome. Only on the first chapter, but it's pretty sweet.

[SilverLuz]

I haven't mentioned what I've been playing in a long time, mostly because it hasn't changed :sd:

I finally finished DQ VIII at about 80 hrs and level 45. I found it thoroughly enjoyable, if a bit too long, but I doubt it's one that I'd go back and re-play. I also finished up Elite Beat Agents. I liked that one, although it didn't feel quite as catchy as Ouendan. I'm beginning to worry that I'm damaging my DS, though, because the screen doesn't seem as responsive as it used to.

As for what I'm currently playing, I'm spending increasing amounts of time in City of Heroes (and a little on the Villains side too). Some of my college buddies recently joined and started a SuperGroup, so that's given me a bit more incentive to log on. On the DS, I'm continuing Puzzle Quest, and I also started the GBA version of Final Fantasy VI, which I haven't played in a very long time. I've got a lot of unfinished games on the various consoles, but don't seem likely to restart any of them soon. Thinking about starting Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, though. (I've never played any of the Paper Mario games, so that should be fun.)

[HitokiriShadow]

I mean that you could literally just walk up (or allow the enemy to walk up to you) and you'll just keep attacking until the enemy is dead.

Okay then something about that sounds rather silly to me.


When no Gambits are on, you are basically in Berserker mode. Once you select a target, you automatically attack it repeatedly until you input something else or it dies. Even if you decide to do something else, it immediately returns to attacking after that action is complete.

On another note, I really need to get back to Odin Sphere. I haven't played it for nearly a week now.

[Suwako Moriya]

Heh now I've finished Abel's Ark in Xenosaga 3. Ah nice to have boss battles where they tell me exactly how to win. Not sure what to think about that. In any case I get the feeling the game is almost over. Granted I could be wrong, but I'm certainly closer to the end than the beginning.

[Suwako Moriya]

When no Gambits are on, you are basically in Berserker mode. Once you select a target, you automatically attack it repeatedly until you input something else or it dies. Even if you decide to do something else, it immediately returns to attacking after that action is complete.

Ah all right then. Either way it sounds like something one will get used to after a bit. Still at least it's not like true berserker which is much harder to get yourself out of.

[HitokiriShadow]

But at least the status effect usually (I think) gives an attack bonus.

[HitokiriShadow]

Heh now I've finished Abel's Ark in Xenosaga 3. Ah nice to have boss battles where they tell me exactly how to win. Not sure what to think about that. In any case I get the feeling the game is almost over. Granted I could be wrong, but I'm certainly closer to the end than the beginning.

If I remember correctly, you should be going to the last area after that. I don't remember being told exactly how to win the fight though.

[ADC]

Thinking about starting Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, though. (I've never played any of the Paper Mario games, so that should be fun.)
Do. Best game of Generation 6. I played it so much I actually killed a pair of AAs in my Wavebird.

[Suwako Moriya]

But at least the status effect usually (I think) gives an attack bonus.

Berserk is best in those situation where you were going to just have the character attack normally most of the battle. Against the demon wall in FF4, I'm sure to berserk Cecil so he'll attack as soon as possible.

[Suwako Moriya]

If I remember correctly, you should be going to the last area after that.

Ah ok I guess that confirms I'm close to the end then. Only thing better than last area would be the ending credits. I guess I'll have the game wrapped up sometime before the end of the week if things go well.

[Chacranajxy]

Got Accent Core this morning. Man it's nice to play GG again. They made a ton of subtle changes to character moves, but I think all of them are for the best, so I'm happy with what they did. I like the new stages as well. Also, this is the first time I've been able to play GG on a decent setup... in 480p, the game looks fucking amazing and on my 5.1 system, the music is also ridiculously good. I would play this game at EVO, but they have those nonsense team tournaments again this year and I don't have anyone to play GG with at that level :(

[Johnny]

Got Accent Core this morning. Man it's nice to play GG again. They made a ton of subtle changes to character moves, but I think all of them are for the best, so I'm happy with what they did. I like the new stages as well. Also, this is the first time I've been able to play GG on a decent setup... in 480p, the game looks fucking amazing and on my 5.1 system, the music is also ridiculously good. I would play this game at EVO, but they have those nonsense team tournaments again this year and I don't have anyone to play GG with at that level :(

Aye man, mine came today too along with Resi 4 Wii and the mighty Forza 2. Haven't had a chance to even look at anything but Forza :D

[DiGiKerot]

Aye man, mine came today too along with Resi 4 Wii and the mighty Forza 2. Haven't had a chance to even look at anything but Forza :D

I've not had a chance to look at anything other than Forzas Livery Editor today. Seriously, seven hours and I've only played three actual races...

[GHardin]

Man, I'm just tinkering with everything nowadays... Been juggling MGS 3: Subsistence and Odin Sphere on the PS2, been playing Guilty Gear Judgment on the PSP, Bleach DS 2nd on the DS, and I just had to buy Under Defeat for the DC at A-Kon. :tired: Argh! Maybe I should have bought some import Saturn titles while I was there. :P

[Suwako Moriya]

You know what I have to wonder if anyone has been able to beat the final boss in Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening with just "Bombs". I can do it with the Sword, the Arrows, and the Boomerang. I've even managed to beat the whole battle without getting hit. However in the case of bombs there's no pattern to when he opens his eye or how long he keeps his eye open. Yeah I know it seems silly since you don't need to use bombs, but I would like to think it's possible to beat him solely by blowing him up repeatedly.

[Johnny]

Ugh, Chacrana mate have you heard about/encountered any of the Accent Core bugs? (http://www.siliconera.com/index.php/2007/06/05/guilty-gear-xx-accent-core-seriously-bugged/). Apparently there's even been a public apology :(

[Chacranajxy]

Ugh, Chacrana mate have you heard about/encountered any of the Accent Core bugs? (http://www.siliconera.com/index.php/2007/06/05/guilty-gear-xx-accent-core-seriously-bugged/). Apparently there's even been a public apology :(

Haven't encountered any bugs, but they seem to be really minor differences for the most part. Either way, it's not like I intend to buy the piece of shit Wii's release.

It's coming out in the US sooner than you might think, so maybe they'll clean it up by then.

[Chacranajxy]

Oh, and Metal Slug Complete came out in Japan... there's not many impressions out there yet, but the one I have seen said that the input lag was better in the Japanese version and the load times were definitely shorter. So it seems that that may be the one to get. So anyway, I'm wondering about Metal Slug 6's standalone release on the PS2 now. Are there any modes in there that aren't on the Anthology release and how does the port quality compare?

[Johnny]

Oh, and Metal Slug Complete came out in Japan... there's not many impressions out there yet, but the one I have seen said that the input lag was better in the Japanese version and the load times were definitely shorter. So it seems that that may be the one to get. So anyway, I'm wondering about Metal Slug 6's standalone release on the PS2 now. Are there any modes in there that aren't on the Anthology release and how does the port quality compare?

There's a pretty cool mission mode/training mode in the standalone PS2 release but, from what I can remember, it's more or less just playing through the missions and trying to get a highscore or meet a requirement etc.
Although I have the EU PSP Anthology, I haven't played through 6 yet so can't really comment on the differences between the two versions.

What I do know is that the Japanese release of the Anthology has gorgeous artwork.

[ADC]

So I got to B6F in Etrian Odyssey and got my ass kicked by one of those frickin' bear things in the room north of the geomagnetic field. I guess I was feeling my oats after drubbing Fenrir before any of his skolls could give him backup, but the difficulty is a bit burlier in the 2nd Stratum. I really want to get deeper because I cheated and looked at a FAQ and discovered that Ronins become available once I reach B11F. It's not to say that my existing team (Landsknecht Cid, Protector Celes, Medic Garnet, Alchemist Vincent, Troubadour Krile) are lousy because that's just not so. It is to say that en got much easier to find and keep once I stopped dying in the 1st Stratum, and now I'm dying again.

Ah, I remember the good old days when you were actually getting somewhere by the time your team had all reached level 25.

[Suwako Moriya]

*Makes progress through final area of Xenosaga 3. Defeats Telos completely (I thinK)* Okay then I suppose it won't be long before I face the final boss. I'm hoping a certain characters gets slapped repeatedly because something about him bothers me. Ie the guy I'm going to meet soon Kevin

Also in some ways already I can see what people meant when they said the previous dungeon would have been a good cut-off point. In some ways this final dungeon feels like they're trying to speed up certain story elements or maybe that's just me.

[tuffy]

The difficulty gap between the 1st and 2nd stratums is a bit...harsh. I spent a lot of time mapping little bits of it at a time while getting drubbed by random encounters and dodging the FOEs altogether. It felt like starting all over again.

Ronins are great fun, though. They're all offense which is what I needed. In order to get her up to speed, though, I had to lots of solo excursions to the 1st stratum and B6F before she reached parity with the rest of my main group. I felt sad giving my Protector the boot, but now I've got a satisfying Landshark / Ronin / Troubador / Alchemist / Medic setup and am making progress again.

I'm thinking about giving a character or two some "Rest" in order to re-allocate points, however. I wish I'd put more into Midareba and a bit less into other stuff. But, live and learn.

[Mateo_home]

Played a little of some of the games I just got.

NeoGeo Battle Colosseum-Didn't really go into depth on this one, doesn't seem to play as good as KOF XI (and to think that these two are finally getting a US release). Will get more into it eventually. Besides, what other game lets you play as Hotaru and Nakoruru? ;)

Twinkle Star Sprites: La Petite Princesse-Charming and cute, which is most likely why it never came to the states. It's a fun shooting puzzle game. It gets harder as you progress aka faster enemies. Here's some more info (http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/twinklestar/twinklestar.htm) for those who haven't heard of this game.

Kurikin: Nano Island AdventureGreat OP and I like how the chapters are told like episodes. They all end with "Tsuzuku" and you can save after. Can't explain much of what I'm doing like at the beggining of the game where you choose a color block which I don't know what I did. :sd: Already up to episode 4. But I wouldn't be surprised if this got announced at E3 which would make me want to kick myself for importing it.

[Johnny]

That's cool you got Twinkle Star Sprites. I love that game, even if I paid over the odds for a mint Saturn version.
Same with Kurikin. Got it a few days ago but haven't started it yet.

I've been playing Biohazard 4 Wii Edition quite a bit. The controls work really well here, with aiming especially being a marked improvement.
The controls don't feel tacked on and the QTE's work a lot better with the remote.

[Collectonian]

Last night I hit exactly 18 21 hours at Final Fantasy XII. After running around and doing all the hunts I could complete and leveling up my characters until Vaan was at level 20 and everyone else at 15-19, I went back to the Tomb of Raithwall.

After another humiliating defeat, I gave up on that *bleep* optional wall, and ran from it. Second wall, gesh, was such a freakin piece of cake! If the first one had as much time to do it, it would have been so much easier. Finished that up, got my first Esper (yay), and went through all the story scenes (Nice twist ruined by my walk through spoiling the story :sigh: ). When they were done, I finished last night's session with a few licenses (gave Vaan the esper, and got Fran her first quickening), stocked on what few supplies I could afford, collected hunt rewards and picked up a few more, and am all set to head to the Giza Plains.

I like all the different weapon options, but man the guns SUCK. There seem to be no decent high powered ones anywhere. I finally switched gun man to the Blood Sword to almost triple his attack power so he could keep up with everyone else. Of course, now I'm down to just two ranged fighters instead of three.

This game is definately deceptively slow...I really didn't play what felt like a long time, but when I'm done I realize I've been playing 3 hours. :P

[ADC]

I like all the different weapon options, but man the guns SUCK. There seem to be no decent high powered ones anywhere. I finally switched gun man to the Blood Sword to almost triple his attack power so he could keep up with everyone else. Of course, now I'm down to just two ranged fighters instead of three.
What you need to know is, however, that guns don't factor in enemy defence when computing damage. Figure it this way:

• Generic sword (ATK 30) versus random enemy (DEF 17) = Damage 13
• Generic stick (ATK 40) versus random enemy (MDEF 30) = Damage 10
• Generic gun (ATK 15) versus random enemy (DEF 17) = Damage 15

You'd think that the stick would be the most powerful, then the sword, but it just ain't so. Obviously, there are other factors involved, but with guns what you see is what you get, and the enemy has no defence against it. Add to it that guns have 100 percent accuracy and they're actually a great option. I could see myself playing all the way through FF12 with six gunners, so long as I have a Hastega Gambit set up because guns' real flaw is that they're so slow.

[Johnny]

Ugh, I think my 360 is dying :cry:
Was playing Forza 2 and got the 3 red lights flashing. Restarted and 10 mins later got it again. Took all the cables out, removed the HDD and restarted and so far, so good, but I really don't wanna buy another console. This one is just 9 months old plus the Japanese haven't got the Elite yet so it'll have to be just a wireless (what is it, "premium" it's called?) NTSC-J model :(

Oh and I'm getting an urge to buy Oblivion on the PS3. Not into this sort of game at all but there's something about it that is tempting me. Worth it?

[DiGiKerot]

Ugh, I think my 360 is dying :cry:
Was playing Forza 2 and got the 3 red lights flashing. Restarted and 10 mins later got it again. Took all the cables out, removed the HDD and restarted and so far, so good, but I really don't wanna buy another console. This one is just 9 months old plus the Japanese haven't got the Elite yet so it'll have to be just a wireless (what is it, "premium" it's called?) NTSC-J model :(

Oh and I'm getting an urge to buy Oblivion on the PS3. Not into this sort of game at all but there's something about it that is tempting me. Worth it?

Urgh, I live in constant fear of my 360 screwing up. Unfortunately, from what I've heard, once it starts going it's likely to just go :(

Still, if it does go in the next three months, before you start looking into buying a new one of anything, you might want to try ringing Microsofts EU support - they have been know to replace import 360s with, well, working import 360s.

[Johnny]

Still, if it does go in the next three months, before you start looking into buying a new one of anything, you might want to try ringing Microsofts EU support - they have been know to replace import 360s with, well, working import 360s.

True, but from what I've read it's often just PAL ones they replace them with and it takes weeks and £££...