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[Rhapsody]

i am very proud of myself. i finally beat Final Fantasy V!!!!

For a moment I couldn't work out whether you were talking about Final Fantasy V, VI, VII, or VIII.

[bajol]

It was V for sure!
He said something about exdeath, so it was Final Fantasy V.

[Rhapsody]

Well yeah, but at the exact moment I was talking about my mind had only read the part I quoted in my last message.

[Wildwurger]

Disgaea 2 PSP and Super Robot Wars Z. I switched out Disgaea for Persona 1, though. I never beat the PS1 version. I went through the door to the last boss, and...the disc stopped working. I'm not sure if that was a screw-up on the part of my PS1 or the disc, but I haven't played Persona 1 in AGES short of an attempt in college using ePSXe (wanted to play the game at an increased speed rather than in slooooooooooooow motion).

In any case, I'm going with Ellen. Elly. Whatever. The old names have been hard-coded into my frigging brain and it's a little difficult to adjust.

[SlicerSV]

Still working on Tales of Vesperia, I'm getting close to the end of my first play through.

Also still working on Star Ocean: Last Hope.  This one is still WAAY back at the beginning of the game, I'm taking it slowly.

Just bought Soul Calibur IV and have all characters unlocked, started working on the Tower of Souls, but I think I'll try to complete a play through of Story Mode as every character real quick first...  Although I'm REALLY bad at playing some of them.  I've always been more of a Taki and Talim kinda person, but I'm finding that I like Hilde even more in this version.

Yeah, I like playing girls.  In fighting games they always have the better move sets for my abilities.  The only exception is Smash Bros.  I REALLY like Falco in Melee and Brawl.

And as for RPG's, I'd much rather be staring at the back of a girl then a guy

[DuskShark]

Time for Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. I loved MGS4 and I'm sure I'll love this one as well.

[Wildwurger]

I'm going to give Persona 1 back to my friend. I realized that I just don't like it very much. All those years with all those Megaten games in-between have made me realize it's probably best played by people who never played the original, or didn't play it much. I'd rather just play SRW...and I did. Several hours of Z, actually.

I'm playing Radiant Mythology 2 right now (as I type this). I have several characters. Probably too many, but I don't really care.

[Bartlebycs]

Just beat Final Fantasy XIII.  Now I'm sad   

Maybe Tales of Vesperia will cheer me up? 

[Cless]

I finished Ar tonelico II a couple days ago, and just loved it all the way to the end. It's such a massive improvement over the first game that I'm still kind of having a hard time believing it. The first game still has a place in my heart in all its unrefinedness and silliness, though.

I always thought the cosmosphere was a cool, unique way of presenting character development. But AT2 takes the concept a step further by presenting the stories in a much more abstract/metaphorical manner, making you have to think a little more about what they symbolize.

I don't know how else to put this game. It just feels a lot more...grown up than the original.

The massive gap in my impressions of AT1 and AT2 is the reason why I feel compelled to replay AT1, simply because I have to double check to confirm if AT2 really is such a improvement or if I have some huge bias running against the first game. The biggest difference from my recollection is the impact of the story and events. In AT1 I've pretty much always felt like an observer from afar on what was happening, while with AT2 it feels like I'm being thrown into a brutal knife fight, it's that close.

Well, having just played them back-to-back, I suppose I felt similarly. AT1 as a whole just seemed a whole hell of a lot lighter. AT2 is so much punchier.

The 3rd reyvateil's cosmosphere is absolutely gorgeous if you know her background from AT1, hence the fanservice.

There's also the conversations with Spica, talk topics, sprinklings of details here and there, Oh, and even calling Shurelia to hack into Raki near the end. I went for Cloche, so I wasn't able to go past level 5. I was dying to see beyond...

Just wait until you get to the bonus cosmosphere =) though I've heard that part of the game was barely translated and edited.

That had to be the most poorly written dialogue in the whole game. A mind***** in itself. I can't believe someone was credited for script editing.

How far have you gotten? Reached the first massive revelation in the Infelsphere yet?

The fights Luca and Cloche got into in this game were absolutely nuts. Some of the most insane I've seen in a game. I loved them.

Regarding the actual spoiler...even during early parts of first phase of the game, I had theorized that Luca and Cloche were sisters. Having Reisha blurt out something like "You're like my daughter" reeked a little too much of obvious foreshadowing. I mean...Reisha believably looks like she could be Cloche's mother.

Much later on, I began to realize that very little about Cloche's younger days had been revealed, at which point I just knew she had to be Leyka, or it just wouldn't make any sense. And it turned out I was right. The cosmosphere pretty much tells you why you never heard about her past because that's what Alice was for.

Anyway, it's a really great game and surprised the hell out of me, terrible localization aside. Absolutely one of my top PS2 games. I feel more compelled than ever to lend more assistance to the retranslation project, and am seriously considering to do script editing for it as well.

[DuskShark]

I beat New Super Mario Bros. Wii...well, more like I beat the final boss for my mother sice she's the one who plays the game. And now one of us will have to begin finding more Star Coins...

Oh, and to any of you who have Metal Gear Solid 3, does it have a control scheme similiar to MGS4? I want to walk while aiming my gun at the enemy.

[Kogahazan]

Oh, and to any of you who have Metal Gear Solid 3, does it have a control scheme similiar to MGS4? I want to walk while aiming my gun at the enemy.

It doesn't, but I never really found a moment where I'd want to walk & shoot; the first-person aim is suited for sitting back and making your shot count. If you must, then the game does have a run and shoot feature if you run first then press the weapon button, but it's pretty inaccurate because you'll just shoot in the general direction you're facing. It works better for automatic weapons or better yet the shotgun, but it sorta defeats the purpose of stealthing through the game, unless you just want to mess around. You're better off CQC'ing if you're close enough to be able to shoot them like that. CQC is too godly in mgs3, one slam is all it takes to knock out regular guards unlike mgs4.

[DuskShark]

It doesn't, but I never really found a moment where I'd want to walk & shoot; the first-person aim is suited for sitting back and making your shot count. If you must, then the game does have a run and shoot feature if you run first then press the weapon button, but it's pretty inaccurate because you'll just shoot in the general direction you're facing. It works better for automatic weapons or better yet the shotgun, but it sorta defeats the purpose of stealthing through the game, unless you just want to mess around. You're better off CQC'ing if you're close enough to be able to shoot them like that. CQC is too godly in mgs3, one slam is all it takes to knock out regular guards unlike mgs4.

Thanks...now I need to get used to the controls(too used to MGS4 ). And yeah, CQC is godly.

[gyozilla]

Getting some game time in during bus and subway rides. Catching up on some Macross Ace Frontier, Legend of Valkyrie (Namco Museum 5), replaying Sakura Taisen 1&2, and believe it or not, still Tales of Vs. It just takes a long time to max out each chara, even if you play as a maxed chara so the enemy lvls and exp. gained will be higher. Someone sitting next to me on the subway last week freaked me out for a sec when she went "I like Leon more" out of the blue. I said the equivalent of "That emo crybaby? I think I just threw up a little in my mouth" and now we're friends. It's rare to be approached about Tales in public, I guess Tales fans know the fanbase is small so we're always itching to take up every opportunity to talk about it. That kinda thing makes me happy as a Tales fan.

[Takel]

Really glad to hear that you enjoyed AT2 Cless. That game is certainly my favourite game out of the PS2 era, even though I am a rabid avid Tales fan, AT2 beats any offering I can think of.

AT1 felt like a Atelier spin off, AT2 developed into a genuine game setting on its own merits.

Been plugging in a few solid hours into FFXIII every here and there and I am absolutely loving the paradigm system. Finally and ATB system that is actually active

[Cless]

Really glad to hear that you enjoyed AT2 Cless. That game is certainly my favourite game out of the PS2 era, even though I am a rabid avid Tales fan, AT2 beats any offering I can think of.

It's up there, definitely. Nothing can possibly top Valkyrie Profile 2 for me. If it's not second, it's third. And, I'm not actually sure what it's competing with. I don't like ranking stuff.

AT1 felt like a Atelier spin off, AT2 developed into a genuine game setting on its own merits.

That's a good way to put it. I also thought about how much AT1 reminded me of what little I played of Atelier Iris 1. Pretty sure it's the same engine, even. Though AT2 still seems to be using an even more tweaked version of that. There's no jump button, no green magic, and maps use the same sort of 2.5D perspective that Tales of Destiny remake does.

Bah...the wait for AT3 in some form of English is already painful. I want it to so badly. The first game likes to pretend it's the only tower in the world, while the second references all three towers unabashedly and the ending sets up for the next game.

[Takel]

That's a good way to put it. I also thought about how much AT1 reminded me of what little I played of Atelier Iris 1. Pretty sure it's the same engine, even. Though AT2 still seems to be using an even more tweaked version of that. There's no jump button, no green magic, and maps use the same sort of 2.5D perspective that Tales of Destiny remake does.

From my view, AT1 appears to borrow Atelier 3's engine. AT2 borrows Mana Khemia's engine, which is itself an Atelier series spin off. Mana Khemia, by the way, is a nice little game. I was in the process of writing up a comprehensive synthesis reference until I lost all my work in a catastrophic HDD crash. HDD motor burnt out, platter surface damage; would have cost a couple grand to recover.

On a tangent, I'm not too certain on how I feel about the 'card' system used in the Atelier and related series. In its simplist form, it's just a glorified way to show who's turn is next. Heck, a weakness in AT1 was that the reyvateils got left behind by the vanguards when their turn rate went through the roof. Mana Khemia had some interesting  mechanics such as one player character who could directly manipulate the cards, including erasing hostile attack cards For the most part, I personally think the system is horribly under exploited.

Bah...the wait for AT3 in some form of English is already painful. I want it to so badly. The first game likes to pretend it's the only tower in the world, while the second references all three towers unabashedly and the ending sets up for the next game.

I strongly considered importing AT3 (along with the art book) but I decided against doing so as the split personalities will probably confuzle the living daylights out of me.

Against my bettter judgement, I've started to play Monster Hunter Tri. Still too early to develop an opinion on it since I'm sucking bad at combat. I'm also in a position to convince a friend to get White Knight Chronicles... It would be nice to have a reliable online partner but I need to figure out a way to make recordings to demonstrate the game to him.... The PS3 doesn't seem to like me hooking into the HDMI signal via a passthrough. I might have to use a component connection instead.