What games are you currently playing?

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

LOL @ that vid, omg that was classic.

[Armando]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

This is far more efficient than the "Ditto's Fuckshack" approach Pokemon takes, which leaves you sorting through the results for hours to see if X skill passed on to Y pokemon with the EV valuss you want.

Yeah, there's a reason I refuse to do Pokemon battles on handhelds if I don't have a convenient way to hack what I need right into the save file. Pokemon breeding is retarded.

[Ketaru]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

LOL @ that vid, omg that was classic.

The elevator sagas continue!

Liara and Wrex also shoot down his request.

But they're not as hostile as Tali is. I guess because this will have been the second time Garrus has tried that with her.

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Currently playing:

Tomb Raider (PS3)
Man, this game is great. A bit melodramatic, but the gameplay just sparkles with awesome.

Backlogging: Assassin's Creed: Revelations (PS3)
Never did finish this game, about halfway done with this now.

Plants vs. Zombies (Vita)
For trophies and funsies because I just like PvZ that much, and this was free from PS+.

Silent Hill: Book of Memories (Vita)
NOT really a Silent Hill game, but interesting in its own right. It wants you to hate it because lolbacktracking, but level and skillups keep me coming back... also hard as nails at times.

Not playing much of anything on PC at the moment.

On tap:
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (PS3)
God of War: Ascension (PS3 next week)


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

So yeah, Xenoblade is pretty sweet. Would love to see more *real* JRPGs like this for PS4/Nextbox because I'll be honest, it looks like a bad PS2 game. It plays great and I'm really enjoying it so far, but on my 48" LCD it's a little blurry/hard on the eyes.

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

So yeah, Xenoblade is pretty sweet. Would love to see more *real* JRPGs like this for PS4/Nextbox because I'll be honest, it looks like a bad PS2 game. It plays great and I'm really enjoying it so far, but on my 48" LCD it's a little blurry/hard on the eyes.

It's painful on my 50" plasma too.

I like Xenoblade a lot, but didn't finish it. Somewhere around halfway into the game or so, it starts to feel more like work than fun what with the nearly endless fetchquesting. To my OCD sensibilities, this seriously degraded my enjoyment, as getting roflstomped by level 80 enemies when you're trying to do a quest you received at level 30 feels a bit... unfair, particularly as the particular quest in question vanishes if you advance one of the side storylines.


Icemage

[Kailea]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

eh I played Xenoblade on my 46" and it was fine, also loaded it up on my Wii U to see how it looked, and it is an improvement...but not much ;p

Right now I am playing Castlevania III Dracula's Curse...... and @#%$#^# Grim Reaper!.... I swear...... only one way I can explain it.....



I am talking Angry Video Game Nerd RAGE here ;p

I am recording it for my channel though.......so I have to finish it ;p ........even if it kills me........

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Still poking my way through Fire Emblem Awakening and P4G. I actually really appreciate how transparent Nintendo was about what the DLC contains. Since this is content totally disconnected from the main story, they put out a video to give you the gist of the content, its rewards and leave you to decide if you really want that.

The one thing I don't like between the NSMB2 DLC and this DLC is stuff like the Golden Pack. This is probably just my exprience with other RPGs talking but rather than have a pack like that, why not just a Metal Slime or Gold Golem kind of enemy like Dragon Quest does? They're rare mobs, drop substantial EXP and gold rewards on you and it doesn't really throw off the balance of the game. Persona 3 and 4 also have Gold Hand mobs that have the same effect.

I'd say cactuars, but you can really abuse the shit out of those in Final Fantasy games. I won't get the Golden Pack on principle, but I'd certainly get Lost Bloodlines, Rouge and the Smash packs, though.

My PC decided to start letting Legend of Grimrock work. I kinda like how they just thrown you in and let you sort things out yourself. The tutorials are nice and to the point like Xenoblade and P4G's are, too. I might play this one in tandem with Etrian Odyssey IV later since they scratch a similar itch, but I got enough to play ATM.

[Armando]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Re:Golden Pack. They let you grind in Awakening, don't they? They clearly don't care if you water down the difficulty by over leveling before missions. I'd argue it's an incentive for players for which grinding is an end all unto itself, which isn't something past Fire Emblems appealed to much.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Yeah so far I'm liking the game well enough, but the NMs are starting to annoy me lol. And Gem crafting is making my head spin >_<


I haven't had any issues with disappearing quests yet, though I'm glad I got that first heart-to-heart...

Early Spoilers

That was a major dick move killing Fiora. She was cute, had a nice voice actress and was actually helpful in battle - and all-around win character. AND THEY OFF HER! WTF, they never kill the childhood best friend, that was serious wtf right there

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Re:Golden Pack. They let you grind in Awakening, don't they? They clearly don't care if you water down the difficulty by over leveling before missions. I'd argue it's an incentive for players for which grinding is an end all unto itself, which isn't something past Fire Emblems appealed to much.

Actually, its the optional Risen encounters on the world map, Spotpass Einherjar battles, spotpass maps AND the repeatable DLC maps that kind of make the Golden Pack overkill. If you go without the Golden Pack, you at least have to watch your resources in weapons and gold more carefully. And if you're a grind monkey, you're going to want that gold for Master Seals and Second Seals when they become more commonly purchasable.

The good thing about the non-linear approach for Fire Emblem is at least now there isn't the risk of the Paladin and Myrmidon units you start out with soaking up so much EXP and leaving other units behind. Those two are still powerful, but so are Dark Mages and a number of other classes.

Also, you can mitigate some of these overleveling advantages just by playing on Hard and later the unlockable Lunatic difficulty and maintaining classic mode. I demoed the game on Hard before release and ... yeah, don't get careless on hard.

Both FE:A and Etrian Odyssey IV have clearly looked west in terms of giving players more freedom over exploration and progression, but in that sense that makes these games to their respective series what FFVI was to Final Fantasy. FE:A also returns some agency back to the player rather than have a fixed, lead hero take center stage and you just be his faceless advisor. That I have a character I be, name, level up and reclass does help me feel a bit more invested in the narrative and overall game.

---------------

Demoed Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. I'm not a total stranger to Fushigi no Dungeon series, but I hadn't tried a Pokemon entry before. but it seems like a decent game so far. I just wish the story bits didn't drag so much. It cute and charming, but it could stand to go faster in delivery.

I know the other games in the series are rougelikes, but there's no permadeath in what is obviously a Pokemon game so how steep is the penalty for being KOed in this series? How much is lost from your inventory?

[Armando]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Actually, its the optional Risen encounters on the world map, Spotpass Einherjar battles, spotpass maps AND the repeatable DLC maps that kind of make the Golden Pack overkill. If you go without the Golden Pack, you at least have to watch your resources in weapons and gold more carefully. And if you're a grind monkey, you're going to want that gold for Master Seals and Second Seals when they become more commonly purchasable.

My point is, once resource management is optional, is there really such a thing as overkill? It's true that if you play sloppily you'll have to grind more to compensate, but the point is that now playing sloppily is an option, and that completely changes how the game plays, just like the lack of permadeath.

I feel they ultimately failed to address the real problem with Fire Emblem, which is the fact that it encourages you to risk your unit's lives for the sake of EXP. Picture your commander saying "Wait! Don't kill that guy; you're strong already, let one of the scrubs have a shot at him." It's ridiculous both in and out of game. The optional grinding is just a stop-gap solution for the problems their EXP system creates.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I feel they ultimately failed to address the real problem with Fire Emblem, which is the fact that it encourages you to risk your unit's lives for the sake of EXP. Picture your commander saying "Wait! Don't kill that guy; you're strong already, let one of the scrubs have a shot at him." It's ridiculous both in and out of game. The optional grinding is just a stop-gap solution for the problems their EXP system creates.

There are loads of opportunities to take your scrubs up against opponents on an even playing field, though - to the point you can take the paladin of the battle field entirely and save them from bigger fights. Pairing up units and even placing those pairs adjacent to each other in combat, along with the relationship building, are key to helping the little guys become more formidable.

The only problem with the system that I see is that the system isn't as advantageous for healer classes. If you put them in the back of a pair, they'll still build the relationship and the stat bonuses, but they have to be switched to the front to heal at the risk of becoming exposed. This becomes less of an issue once you can reclass them to use weapons, too, but intially Lissa and Maribelle are disadvantaged until them and once you have Libra and Anna you may never have a reason to use them again. I've not given up on Lissa and Maribelle, because I want some mounted mages, but I think they could have just had their classes upgraded to weapons or magic from the outset to keep them from potentially falling behind.

Everyone else seems to level up all right.

[Firewind]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I don't really think about all that stuff in Persona 4 that much, at least, not until the megabosses, I've already min/maxed various SMT games and Persona 4 is far and away one of the easier ones. Plus it just feels dirty to have an exploitative mentality toward the game's character relationships - I mean, you want to hang out with people because they're cool and you like them, not for the SL grind.

But it is a good way of putting up with S.Links that you don't like. For me it was Devil on P3 and 4, Moon (I think? It's the creepy as hell monk that gives a ton of paedophile vibes in P3) and Sun Music Club Path on P4 [insert himdaisy joke here].

[Armando]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

There are loads of opportunities to take your scrubs up against opponents on an even playing field, though - to the point you can take the paladin of the battle field entirely and save them from bigger fights. Pairing up units and even placing those pairs adjacent to each other in combat, along with the relationship building, are key to helping the little guys become more formidable.

They might've made it easier to train the weaklings with the partner system, but that doesn't change the fact that you're still concerned with micromanaging your match-ups to get the most EXP. Gamers gonna game. Is that really what the player should be concerned with? The whole healer thing is just one more failing of the system.

I'm not saying this is like a huuuuge problem that totally kills the series or anything, but it's there, and I feel it moves the focus of combat in the wrong direction. You'll always have that nagging voice in the back of your head saying "Should've used the level 9 unit, not the level 10 one!" I wish they would've embraced the Bonus EXP system wholesale and dropped the per-hit EXP - then your main concern would always be something sensible and related to the in-game situation.