Now playing...

[Cheetah]

On the final chapter in Valkyria Chronicles. Woohoo!

It's a very good game, but it took me a while to get through. I recently got ahold of the DLC, but I haven't dived into it too much. Some of the missions turn me off to begin with because they are so long, so turning up the difficulty and creating even more lengthy resets just isn't quite doing it for me. Amazing game design in general and easily my favorite next gen RPG that I have played, though I have played few.

[Takel]

I played SRW MX today. That's about it. Had a staring contest with Infinite Space and won, so I didn't play that. I'm just not feeling it. I want to like it, but the whole thing just seems...man, it's like a visual novel with weird gameplay. The ship battles don't make any sense. There's no way to predict what the enemy's going to do next, is there? So why would you ever choose "Dodge"? Wouldn't the enemy, who can more than likely read your moves (a staple of video games since time immemorial) just pick "Barrage" immediately afterwards?

It's actually very easy to read what that AI is going to do since the AI works in much the same way you should.

The enemy ship has a coloured outline indicating what state its command gauge is at, much like your own. If it turns yellow then flicks down to green or red to yellow, it's used Dodge so barrage will not work. In fact, the AI will typically use dodge if your gauge has hit red even if it's gunning for its own barrage. Essentially you have to run the assumption that unless the AI has just attacked, it has dodge up. Keep in mind that a fully charged command gauge actually has a red and a yellow command stocked up before there's a notable charging pause. Don't blow the entire gauge (say, use Final Roar which uses 90% of the gauge and not 66% for a normal barrage) if the AI has fully charged the gauge and only used a Normal attack to disable its dodge because if its not dead, it will have a clean Barrage before you can charge your gauge for a dodge. Barrage is painful but if you play the command gauge right, you should never get hit by it. The only concern is if the AI decides to normal spam you to death, and to that you just need to counter with a barrage or heavier fire power.

Dodge beats Barrage. Barrage has like a 1% chance to hit against dodge. Normal excels against Dodge since Normal gains a hit bonus against dodge. Barrage deals 3x the damage of a Normal for 2x the command cost.

Space combat boils down to a reactive/countering style where unless you can be absolutely sure that you overpower the opponents in a straight up slugfest or that you have bypassed their weapons, you should usually stay on the defensive and be ready to launch counter-attacks. Ground combat is a totally different beast and I absolutely detest it.


I personally never likes the idea of Blue mages. Sure, the whole idea of
"the more you use them, the better they get" is nice in that meta sense, I just don't like the gimmick factor that the only reason why you'd use them is if you can copy an ability which is more powerful or covers a niche compared to the standard mages

[Wildwurger]

Hm. Thanks, that helps. I just hope I can put this into practice. I feel like my skill isn't evolving with changing technology and gameplay types the same way it did when I was younger.

[DuskShark]

Playing the Uncharted demo. I REALLY suck at these shooters. Then again, I delude myself into thinking that I'm decent at them. I am not gonna go anywhere if my aim is horrible. >_>

[Cless]

Anime streak continues. Now in the middle of watching Kanon (2006) after picking it up cheap. I wasn't positive what I was getting into, but for the price and its high ratings I figured it was worth a try. I spent the first 1/4 of the series feeling rather indifferent about it (pretty art aside), but good lord the end of Makoto's arc was such a downer. In fact, I still can't get it out of my head and am still feeling depressed by it after watching it last night. I find it so funny because I really didn't like her that much at first. As her story started developing I started feeling sorry and grew to like her a lot more. I feel like I'm obsessing over this too much, but...depressing show is depressing. I think I need to take a break from it because Mai's arc probably didn't have the impact it was supposed to.

EDIT: Yeah, I'm gonna rewatch Cowboy Bebop in the meantime.

[Cless Aileron]

Cless, maybe you should re-title the topic, "Now playing/watching".

Anyway, I'm pretty much at the end of Final Fantasy XIII.  Just need to beat it and I'll gradually do the post game stuff.

Honestly, I'm finding Final Fantasy XIII as a great game.  It has its problems, but it still manages to be an engaging game.  Seriously, I'm finding Final Fantasy XIII makes for a better Final Fantasy game than Tales of Legendia is for a Tales game.  Maybe I should have kicked Final Fantasy VIII down a notch more with the remark instead.

I'm also playing Infamous (PS3).  It's a pretty awesome game.  Going around the quarantine city with electric superpower and having ambiguous morals.  Currently, I'm just playing my current file on the good side, however if I'm ever in a bad mood, I can always start working on an evil side game ("Get away from there!  It's my food!"  *zap*  "Fool!  Untwist this valve!  I'm not going to get this mind poisoning tar on me and make me lose my mind further!"  *zap* and more misdeeds).

(Though I know any more bad mouthing comments I make about Tales of Legendia may end up getting me doing that evil file)

[DuskShark]

Hell yeah! I beat Valkyria Chronicles! I loved the hell out of the game. Now I'm all set for Valkyria Chronicles 2 when it comes in the summer! Although VC was awesome, there were 2 things that bugged me. Beware, spoilers.

First off, Isara's death was well, stupid. I say that because it was easily preventable. You don't just go talking to one of your comrades JUST after taking over the enemy base! The chat between Rosie and Isara prety much gave the enemy a chance to get the drop on the 7's. Also, why isn't there a medic around? Despite that, it was sad that Isara is gone...

My second problem is with Kreis, Isara's replacement. He isn't in the other scenes with Welkin and the others. He's just there. He's basically just a useless plot element to fill in Isara's spot. It would be nice if we got some character development for him.

Now trying Phoenix Wright: Ace Attourney. My first time playing a PW game and geez, I really suck at it. So far, I already messed up twice, and that's durng the first time I'm cross-examining the witness...  

EDIT: On case 2 now. Thank you Gumshoe for making my job harder

[Cless]

For some reason, I got in the mood to play a very niche JRPG yesterday, so I figured I'd replay Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia. I'm doing Misha's path this time (I did Aurica's before).

Can't believe it's already been three years since I last played this. Even though it has countless problems, I loved it anyway. The soundtrack is still godly, and sits comfortably somewhere in my top 5 in the last five (maybe ten?) years.

Some downs is that the localization might be even weaker than I remember it being in 2007. I knew it didn't stand out then, but the non-voiced segments sound especially plain. But I suppose plain is much better than the huge amount of borderline Engrish found in Ar tonelico II's "localization."

[Wildwurger]

Misha and Cloche > Aurica and Luca. There, I said it, and I feel better for having said it.

*checks various systems* What've I been playing? Hmmm. Oh, um...Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2, Super Robot Wars K, and Super Robot Wars A Portable, according to what's in my PS3/DS/PSP. I keep waging war with myself to get off my ass and TRY not to suck at Gihren's Greed (Ambition, whatever) but my brain's not kicking over (like a car that won't start) even though I know what I have to do. Or maybe I should stop playing ROBOT GAMES for five goddamn minutes and work on my PS2 backlog. What the hell is wrong with me, anyway?

[Hoa Dao]

Can't stop playing Zelda: Minish Cap....

[Goshi]

Finally beat Wild Arms XF. The final boss was ridiculously easy which is shame. No, I didn't do the HEX Lock trick either. Overall it was a pretty good game, plus the soundtrack is one of the best ever. Guess its back to finishing Wild Arms 3 >_>

Come to think of it though. Its a Wild Arms game without Lucied O_o

I haven't played 4 or 5 yet mind you, but it did surprise me a little.

[Cless]

For some reason, I got in the mood to play a very niche JRPG yesterday, so I figured I'd replay Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia. I'm doing Misha's path this time (I did Aurica's before).

Finished it, though I only got the incomplete ending. I'll get the complete one tomorrow. Phantasmagoria is the greatest ending theme song there will ever be.

I might try to give Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica another try after I'm done. Let's hope the sad excuse for a localization doesn't scare me away this time...

[Takel]

Finished it, though I only got the incomplete ending. I'll get the complete one tomorrow. Phantasmagoria is the greatest ending theme song there will ever be.

I might try to give Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica another try after I'm done. Let's hope the sad excuse for a localization doesn't scare me away this time...

I raise you one and put forward Ar Tonelico III's Ec Tisia as being superior. Ignore the video, I suspect it contains a large number of spoilers but I can't be bothered digging up one which has better audio and is not on Nico.

Good luck with Ar Tonelico II. I'm struggling with getting through it and I'm on my 4th attempt to ignore the glaring inadequacies.

[Cless]

I raise you one and put forward Ar Tonelico III's Ec Tisia as being superior. Ignore the video, I suspect it contains a large number of spoilers but I can't be bothered digging up one which has better audio and is not on Nico.

Ec Tisia is quite nice, even if half the song is just all three games' Harmonics songs strung together. But it doesn't beat Phantasmagoria for me.

Akiko Shikata is a legend. And I'm not a jpop fan.

Good luck with Ar Tonelico II. I'm struggling with getting through it and I'm on my 4th attempt to ignore the glaring inadequacies.

The localization made me angry, SO freaking angry when I played it when it came out. That's what we get after the release took 15 months? For a supposed "professional" release? Atlus has stated in the past that it typically takes them 6 months to complete a project, and 6-8 weeks of that is the translation and editing process...and they're bloody amazing with that kind of schedule.

I couldn't even finish phase 1 of ATII...I remember having to mentally reconstruct many lines just to make them sound normal, if I could even figure out exactly what they're trying to say.

NISA better deliver big with the ATIII localization, and that also means going well beyond the (mediocre) localization effort for ATI. Sakura Wars was supposedly very well done for a NISA project (perhaps their best localization ever?), but I haven't played it yet. Gives me some hope, I guess...but their track record is pretty spotty overall. (isn't Sakura Wars also 100% voiced? It's pretty clear the ADR scriptwriter edits the voiced lines to sound much more normal and natural in their crappier localizations).

[Haven]

I finally picked up Tales of the Abyss, it has been gathering dust in my house for idk how long, i think since last year around September. Anyways I finally got PCSX2 to work so I figured I would test it and the only game in my room was TotA, and well lets say I was supposed to do a shit ton of homework and it didnt' get done, now i'm slaving for my deadline tomorrow .  But overall I love the game, to be honest I have heard a lot of bad comments about Luke but to me he seems like a very funny guy, I mean yeah sometimes he makes me want to kill him but still that sort of thing is what makes the game so fun.

The part that I remember the most is when Luke and Tear get captured and they are inside the Tartarus and Jade says to Luke oh look at you with all those woman around you (or something like that), Tear quickly says "Its not like that" and Luke says "I don't think he was referring to you, he was referring to Anise and Mieu", Mieu replies "But master I'm a boy", Luke says "You sure as hell don't sound like one!" this made me crack up. Sadly I think i will have to leave it alone while i finish all the programs for tomorrow and the day after

[Empty_sky]

I finally picked up Tales of the Abyss, ...

yeah, just be careful with that game. there are a lot of bugs and slowdowns. it's fun, and a great game... but glitchy sometimes. just stay away from enemies on the overworld.

so, a year ago in my original playthrough of Final Fantasy V, i decided "hmmm, let's park my airship on the mountain entrance, that seems like a good idea!" well, because of that, i couldn't board the airship anymore, forcing me to flush 30+ hours of gameplay down my hard-drive. i finally GOT PAST THAT PART!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. i'm about to get 9 of the 12 super weapons... so yay!!!!