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What games are you playing?

do you like them video games? what about those there romhacks? well pop on in here and talk about them then! what are you waiting for?!
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KobaBeach
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

RTP Story~もしも勇者が痛かったら~体験版 (What if the Hero was a Total Cringelord - Demo ver.) - Again I'll have to use Textractor and Google Lens on this one. This one uses a much more approachable 2D Tales battle system, but I'd still like to know what Shibaruba's dialogue is like.

I played up to the goblin boss but I ran into a common glitch where Lilia just winds up stuck between impassable tiles. Shiba mentioned a way to fix this is to walk away a small distance and save before fighting the goblin, but the feedback BBS for this VIPRPG Golden Week Festival entry also has a patch link so, I'll try to redownload it if necessary.

Also. Pseudo 3D.

アイスさん探訪記 (The Chronicles of Ice's Research) - Okay so. I just tried it for a hot second and it's pretty good. I really like the Custom Battle System, it's pretty hard but there's zero luck in this game, it's all skill and math despite being turn based, which is super cool and something I'm shocked to see in a 2ch/5ch RPG Maker RTP injoke RPG.

But I'm gonna have to boot it up with Textractor along with Google Lens for the picture tutorials, to be able to learn any sort of gameplay mechanics, like Ai wa Sadame, Sadame wa Chi. From what I can tell, you get defense points at the start of a turn and you have to pick the most effective attack that gives the highest value in an (ATK - DEF) calculation if physical, or a (ATK - MDF) calculation if magic. It's super good anyway and I really like the royalty free assets used in this, they're also super cute. I might save this for later.

Trials of Mana - Got Salamando, Luna and Dryad. The scene were Ludgar turns into a baby was touching but funny in a way only Mana could do. I'm gonna do the Benevodons in the same order I found the spirits, discounting Zable Fahr ofc. First stop is the Shimmering Ruins to fight Lightgazer but I'm gonna level up a bit so I can do decent damage.

I've also been feeling like playing Tales of Destiny 2.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by raekuul »

Beating the main story of a battle network game? Piece of cake.

Getting through the postgame of a battle network game? A significant time sink due to requiring library completion and folder optimization, but still reasonable given the ability to suspend play whenever.

Getting all the completion stars of a battle network game? Considering this includes Program Advance Memo completion (which requires not just library completion but getting specific chip code drops), I am probably not doing that ever again (only doing it for BN2 because Sanctuary; I already know I won't be doing it for either version of 3 because that includes doing the Serenade Time Trials which means I lose my customized folders on top of it!)
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

raekuul wrote: 9 months ago Beating the main story of a battle network game? Piece of cake.

Getting through the postgame of a battle network game? A significant time sink due to requiring library completion and folder optimization, but still reasonable given the ability to suspend play whenever.

Getting all the completion stars of a battle network game? Considering this includes Program Advance Memo completion (which requires not just library completion but getting specific chip code drops), I am probably not doing that ever again (only doing it for BN2 because Sanctuary; I already know I won't be doing it for either version of 3 because that includes doing the Serenade Time Trials which means I lose my customized folders on top of it!)
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by thatguyif »

So my PC keeps randomly shutting off. Weird way too: Everything on the PC cuts out except my mouse and my external hard drive. I suspect the power supply is on the fritz after ruling out other possibilities. Just got a replacement. I'll have to spend a chunk of this afternoon unplugging and replugging everything.

Before that happened though, I played a good chunk of Bioshock Infinite - Burial At Sea, Part 2. In terms of gameplay, I was like "Man, this feels like Thief: The Dark Project," which I only played a bit of but could distinctly remember its feel. And what do you know, I learned after there's a game mode called 1998 Mode which is just basically "You're just playing Thief: The Dark Project now!" Consequently, though, I played it really slow. I think it ironically showcased some of the misgivings I have about the original Bioshock Infinite, in that gunplay never feels on the ball. I played stealthy as much as I could because it felt better to do than trying to outgun everyone. It doesn't help that Elizabeth is pretty fragile in comparison to

both

Booker

s

. That said, cleared the first Rapture part of the DLC, and now I'm back in Columbia.

Story thoughts:
Interesting that they leaned hard on the Lutecces being in a quantum superposition when they were "killed" to explain Elizabeth's predicament. With that said...knew through accidental spoilers that Elizabeth eventually dies in this DLC, just didn't realize she was already dead. (Related: Why the fuck did Elizabeth, easily the smartest person in Infinite, not have an escape plan after finishing her revenge with "Booker?" She had to have known Koba the Big Daddy was gonna come after her when he was done drilling old man Comstock!)

But I think what is most interesting to me is the very beginning of the DLC, where we see Elizabeth finally in Paris...except it isn't Paris at all. It's a simulacra of Paris, the purest form of it. I've long considered Ken Levine to be far more adept at understanding Baudrillard's theories of the simulacra, even more so than the Wachowskis. It shows in System Shock 2, it definitely shows in Bioshock, it shows in Bioshock Infinite...it shows in here. (All that "ludonarrative dissonance" bullshit was made up by some hack journalist who never read Baudrillard and makes himself proof that most gamers are unable to understand, let alone withstand, applied critical theory.) Granted, it gets a little too on the nose with the singing blue bird (how Disney-esque 🙄), but the simulacra truly fits in that uncanny sense of alienation. This is what Elizabeth always wanted...except it isn't real.
Continued a bit with Pilotwings 64. Some of this stuff requires serious routing that I can't comprehend. But hey, I suppose that's the nature of the game.

Fiesta season is imminent with pre-reg open. I'm a little confused by the updates. It's both simpler and more complicated? I dunno. I'm also a little annoyed they've switched from Twitter registration to Google (so much for anonymity...), for reasons that haven't been really elucidated. I'll prolly still do a run this year, but I dunno. It just doesn't have the same kick anymore. And people around it are getting weird, and not in a good way.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by Ashan »

Finished off the main campaign in Tears of the Kingdom.
My playtime after getting the ending was 125 hours, but I still have a handful of stuff I want to do. I have some shrines to finish up for one thing, though not many. I'm thinking I'll also do all missions? Even though I feel like I know of at least one that's gonna be a bit of a pain in the ass (telling some lady the location of every well in the game. I will feel zero guilt just looking up a guide cause who does something like that on their own?). Probably will get all armor pieces, though I doubt I'll upgrade them cause who cares.
Even tossing around the idea in my head of filling out the compendium. I never did that in BotW, but something about all the new mobs in the game had me bringing the camera out more, so I've already got a decent chunk of enemies filled out. It might be a fun little mindless task to do while listening to podcasts. Very little chance of me doing korok seeds though.

But uhhh yeah it's a very good game!
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by raekuul »

MMBN4: Starting the Eagle Tournament. I give this game a lot of shit but its format makes it perfect as a cooldown game between other games since I can just play "one scenario" at a time.

Xenoblade 3: Starting the DLC campaign "Future Connected." Hee hoo boy.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by Bean »

Went from only one dungeon down on Friday to having finished my third one today in Tears of the Kingdom. Link's really decked out with defense at this point, so things have been cruising along at a brisk pace. Not really trying to rush out here or anything, but I probably should've paced the exploration to dungeon stuff better. Already logged in the same amount of time I spent with Breath of the Wild five years ago. I'd say this one's better.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Tales of Destiny 2 (the actual one) - hello. Didn't do much yesterday due to a really bad panic attack/trigger that I had to take a sedative for (embarrassing, feel free to laugh at it). But I did some stuff.

Wild Jungle was a neat dungeon, but I wish that its central gimmick was less easy to enter a fail state in. I guess it doesn't matter since the amount of Garmr Fangs you get are always kept, regardless of whether you fall into a pit or not, but it feels so dumb. Outside of that, chasing around the Garmr to hunt them was kinda fun, reminded me of recruiting the stray Biyomon in the Gear Savanna in Digimon World, but less clunky (DW1 is so clunky lol).

After that I visited Speranza which, same shit different name, as expected of a world where Elrane is so obsessed with keeping everyone sheltered af for their own safety.

I'm just grinding for gald outside of it to get better equips and maybe Rune Bottle some shit, I'll try to experiment with Enchants and such with the help of Google Lens to see if I can mess with the settings a bit more to make my journey a bit more comfortable and also reread some past tutorial NPC texts in the script translation and some FAQ stuff for added knowledge. After that we're heading to Realta in the Heidelberg region.

Also the reason this script translation I'm using uses the terms "Gospel, Hope and Reality" instead of "Vangelo, Speranza and Realta" for the Alternate Timeline towns is that apparently it was Google Translated from an Italian translation in like Altervista circa 2012? Oopsie!

I might play some Narikiri Dungeon 1 later too, I just really feel like Talesing rn, blame Shibaruba's RTP Story.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by raekuul »

Xenoblade 3: tank acquired, time to never play as anybody else.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Tales of Destiny 2 (the actual one) - Again, no real progress.

Turns out refining weapons and such is mostly augmentation. The items the enemies drop sometimes come with augments, usually a term before its main weapon type, such as Merchant Hunter Bow or Treasure Hunter Bow. If they have a blue square circling its weapon icon, pulsating into it before fading out, they can be placed onto another blue square weapon or a no square weapon (the latter are the ones you buy from shops and are usually stronger) to augment it with a passive special, maybe some stat ups.

If it has two passives, it gains a green square, now green square weapons cannot be appended to anything, refining it with a no square weapon simply splits it up into one of two (there's always two results and you choose between the one you prefer). I haven't checked what happens if you apply a blue weapon of the same passive chain to it yet. Need to see how to level up the passives (slots in this case). It's very fascinating, and I'll try to experiment with it more if I find a drop list in a JP wiki somewhere.

Yellow square weapons also exist, these are unique weapons and can't be appended to anything or have things appended to them either.

I think you can go through the game without interacting with this and Enchants and stuff as long as you "read the room", as ToD2 has a very weird way to be played - you mostly want Kyle forcing the enemies back with physicals while everyone else casts spells, taking into account any penalty stipulation in Barbatos' battles - but passive bonuses are always nice.

This blog post details how to make an 8:8 Slot augmented item, but it is in Japanese. If anyone here is a fellow Tales fan, I can try to translate it, but I can't promise high quality. This wiki page also details the intricacies of the Slots. I can try to mirror some of the data on here on my website if a translation would be appreciated, I've personally thought about mirroring some Asian RPG data and walkthrough instructions (Korean and Taiwanese games sorely need it I feel) before archiving them on say, GameFAQs, but again my Japanese isn't very good, and writing a full guide would take several months, several replays and quite a bit of memory fiddling with Cheat Engine and such to speed up the process along with cheat codes I find.

I'll try to keep reading up on this, and looking for any JP manual scans on Archive.org. I also bought a bow for Nanaly.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by raekuul »

Friend of mine has been casting Persona 5 Royal to a discord group and that gave me the itch to start streaming Persona 3 FES on twitch again so... yeah, that's a thing again. Currently up to the first "free day", went straight into Tartarus because I managed to run out of funds and have nothing better to do (because apparently the library is locked)
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon - The Cavern of Flames is whooping my ass.

The trap spots where you drop down to a lower floor and take damage are much harder to see than in say, like. Lufia 3 on the GBC? And the enemies can also be kind of a pain, mostly the Ogres. There's also a lot of damage floors in the form of pink and red lava, and not all of it can be avoided.

Efreet is also mad tough, I kept getting obliterated by the guy, even juggling Life Bottles and Gels and shit to keep Dio and Mel alive and their TP high up so they could keep using Demon Fang (Majinken) and First Aid respectively, and also let Couleur use Storm, was to no use.

I'm gonna have to grind a bit and figure out how to make Made To Order (Order Made in JP) class costumes, just in case.

(EDIT: Seems the daughter of the folks in the clothes shop at Valhalla Town is the one who does the made to order costumes, however she's not available yet. Might need to clear a few more dungeons in the storyline first.)

I also lied down in bed after that but instead of turning off my PC and tucking myself in for the night I fell asleep atop the sheets too quickly. oops

(EDIT: I also still love the weird Treasure Hunter G reference in Euclid, the Treasure Hunter Z house. Any THG reference is a plus in my book, severely underrated game, I would like to make a more accurate, but still well localized translation patch for it.)

EDIT 2: Found the Made to Order lady. She was hiding out at the Euclid item shop. Levelling up new costumes and mixing and matching them. Dio currently has the Goof-Off outfit, while Mel has the Scholar, need to exchange them for eachother later to level them up as both kids. Already leveled up the Bandit and Merchant outfits as both, and I'm gonna do the Painter one next. Still can't beat Efreet, will keep at it.

Of the costumes I have mastered so far:
Apprentice Swordsman + Mage or Healer can get me the Chef outfit,
Fighter + Merchant can get me the Wealthy Merchant outfit,
Hunter + Bandit can get me the Master Thief outfit.

FINAL EDIT FOR NOW: Beat Efreet and Undine, levelling up to around Lv16-17 wound up helping, as well as Couleur turning into its lagomorph-like form (rabbit, to put it bluntly). Dio was a Fighter at the vanguard, while Mel was a Healer behind Couleur, though I think the other way around (Mel at the vanguard as a Fighter) could work too.

The Fighter's Coil arte (Focus More if you're used to the DeJap translation) helped to charge up Dio's attacks, Chain Attack and Flying Press, really. While Mel stayed in the back using her Healer costume's First Aid spell to help keep everyone topped off, with the occasional Gel tossing.

Heading to the Cavern of the Earth soon to meet up with the Gnomes and we should be done in Claus/Klarth's time, unless we have to meet up with the other spirits in this time too.

I have the following costumes right now:
Apprentice Knight - Mastered
Fighter - Mastered (Dio is using it)
Magic User - Mastered
Flare Mage - needs 240 CP
Wind Mage - needs 240 CP
Healer - Mastered (Mel is using it)
Hunter - Mastered
Bandit - Mastered
Great Thief - needs 240 CP
Merchant - Mastered
Master Salesman - needs 240 CP
Scholar - Mastered
Goof-Off - Mastered
Gambler - Mastered
Model - Mastered
Chef - Mastered
Artist - Mastered
And here's everyone's raising stats:
Dio:
Title: Warmhearted
Description: Passionate and easily moved to tears.
Emotions... Truly what makes life special.

Honesty - 0
Jokester - 0
Thoughtful - 42
Zealous - 57
Dark - 0
Fanciful - 0

Mel:
Title: Charmer
Description: A graceful little miss who makes all the boys fall head over heels♥
Don't get her wrong though, she's wise beyond her years!

Honesty - 0
Playful - 0
Attentive - 0
Charm - 100 (i dont know how this happened i swear)
Mean - 0
Fanciful - 0

Couleur:
Title: Busom Buddy
Description: Cry out for her, and she'll be there to help you out of a pickle!
Truly, friendship conquers all!

Friendship - 100
Loyalty - 0
Wildness - 0
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by Noelle »

I've played this game about an year ago or so, but I keep coming back to replay it, it's called Pumpking, a short little game made in Pico-8. Due to it being short, it's really replayable, and there's an appeal to trying to finish it faster, with more points and less deaths (still haven't managed to do a no death run). Since they're also equally short and give me the same type of feeling, I'll mention Lemonhunter and Shelled Shinobi, they also provide that sort of old arcade game experience mixed with those 80s European computers (probably due to the graphics). They are available for free and can be downloaded or played on browser, you can also pay whatever you're able to, if you enjoyed the games and want to help the devs.

They're all platformers, but with different aspects to them. Pumpking is a more classic one-level game with multiple checkpoints, where you jump on enemies and so on, it's pretty straightforward. Lemonhunter has randomized elements (it essentially randomizes level layouts), and it's a game where you go around a fairly big level and look for a door, there are a few levels, but it can be beaten in less than 15 minutes. The level layouts being random make it more replayable (it's worth noting the game doesn't use procedural generation, instead the layouts are consistent and the game merely switches between properly designed levels). Shelled Shinobi is a different type of game, it's a series of challenges in one long level, and it plays a lot similarly to the shell power-up in NSMB, it's a really fun game where you play around with the physics to progress.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Final Fantasy II (the actual one) - Always multi-wield backup saves.

Leveled up the main party's HP to 500 (Firion and Maria) and 800 (Guy), and wrapped up the Snow Cave behind Salamand. Fought Borghen, Josef ate shit (o7), did the Kashuan Keep and got Gordon (he was useless :C felt bad for him), took a few tries to do the Dreadnought, first turn ate shit due to too many status effects, went back for Eye Drops and Antidotes, and the second time ate shit bc I opened the Ice Shield chest by accident while trying to avoid it, it's booby trapped with a Magician and a Hill Gigas.

Third time's the charm, as it goes, did make a safety savestate just in case, because I was blanking a bit. There's two chests in the middle, one of them containing the shield, and I haven't played this game in a few years, and haven't watched Johnny's review in a few months.

I also have some memory issues since middle school, so! :rao:

After the passing of King Altair, got Leila, and I took a detour to Mysidia (:train: SavescumでGO! :train:) due to Deist Cave having a bunch of Hill Gigas as well. My first time playing the NES version these effectively stonewalled me. I've upgraded Firion, Maria and Guy's armor, and gave Maria an Ice Bow and Guy an Ogrekiller Axe. Gave Esuna to the main party, back at Bofsk I believe? And I've given Swap to Maria, I'm gonna try and save up 8000 Gil x 3 to get it on the other three and try to equip Leila for a bit, since I do like her and she's not as bad a victim of trash timing like Gordon is.

Swap is an HP and MP swapping spell you can use on an enemy, use it on what is effectively a Route 1 Mon, like the Leg Eaters and Hornets, and you get mondo HP and MP gains due to the game's imperfect coding, I wouldn't have it any other way, though. Thanks to Dragon Fogel for telling me abt that through osmosis (read it on his Discord posts, someone may have been playing FF2 on RPG Frontier).

I'm not very concerned about Weapon levelling and just rolling with it. If need to I'll do the "Accept Accept Accept Refuse" exploit: start an attack with the main three who are with you for the whole game, go back starting with the fourth member and back, the attack level number never decrements for some reason? I think Nasir may have forgotten to include a decrement opcode due to space issues? I'm not sure how large the ROM is, but I do know FF3 was complex enough or messy enough that it was hard to replicate in a Wonderswan Color cart.

I'll try to keep everyone with Berserk in their spellset just in case we need an ATK buff, too.

I've been watching Kitchen Nightmares on YouTube all this time and tbh? I can't sleep, woke up around 4:30 PM. Reimu's me rn :reimuko:
Bless the disaster person who uploaded everything with unhinged titles on the Kitchen Nightmares YT channel, they make my gaydar go off like a bloodthirsty hellhound.

EDIT: Did all of Deist Cavern (didn't get all of the treasures, though), fought the Queen Lamia, the Behemoth and trekked through the prison underneath the Palamecian Colosseum. Full disclosure, I used savestates because redoing the Behemoth battle and the Paul cutscene every time I got nuked by the mage enemies outside Hilda's prison, or if I got full party petrification, is not my vibe. Even if I'm so broken the Behemoth is piss easy. Paul's a true bro though.

Parked outside Fynn. I think that's enough for now, I have an AAT sublevel to insert.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Summon Night (not Swordcraft) - Trying to translate the dialogue for myself using Google Lens.

Going down the Claret as partner route as Natsumi. In terms of important choices, I picked up the "gems" in the summoning ritual area with all the dead people (got 2x of each Summonite Stone), and told Rami that I do have a family, but that I can't go back to them, which effectively means I don't for now (raised my affection level with her, please be nice to kids).

For low grind strats I first equipped Natsumi properly, got her a Robe and a Novice Knife in place of her Letter Opener before the first fight in Ch1 with Gazel vs. a trio of Optius bastards, and before the second battle against Banossa and four of his flunkies, I bought a Throwing Dagger so Gazel could be more versatile by being a long range attacker. Got this hint from Happy Days (no relation to Fonz) and it's been very useful.

For the nightly conversation I went with Edos because he just looks so derpy and adorable... Also he and Leid are like. 23 and 24 respectively which is surprising coming form an anime-esque game. Gazel and Lipre were pretty up there, but I can't. I'm weak. And I did a mostly Lipre run last time with Hayato. I'll also try doing a whole Claret run sometime, but she only has a unique ending with Hayato and Touya, I believe? No yuri ending. :c

Though there is a what if BL ending in a promotional animation video (no dialogue just music) where Kir winds up in Hayato's world in one of the clips, apparently fans voted for this and I can't blame them.

I think the only one who has a unique ending in every run is Lipre. But it's just a still I think, the rest are either:
  • The different gender summoner partner ending, you go back to Tokyo, but the summoner follows you back through magic
  • or everyone else who just get a general ending which is kind of the same as Lipre, you stay in Seijent
  • oh and there's the bad karma ending, which you become the

    God of Death you were intended to be the vessel of

    or whatever the fuck, it's spoilers
Only from SN2 would they start serving us right with the partners, though it helps to only have a choice between one male and one female protag in that one, instead of two of each. Did a Toris and Nesty run last time, might go for Toris and Amer this time. I like Magna and Hayato, but they can't attack in all 8 directions like Toris and Natsumi can, I assume Aya can too.

Saved at the start of Chapter 2 and I'll continue later.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by thatguyif »

It is done. I have completed all of Bioshock Infinite, a game I think I bought 8 years ago. Maybe 9.

Burial At Sea - Part 2...it's quite something. The essay I intend to write one day on Ken Levine's (probably inadvertent but) adept use of Baudrillard will take a lot of what happened in this DLC into full account. The nature of the simulacra, how it affects us the players and even the characters inside the game, the point where the game decides to remind you of all this...it's all there. Levine's more creative than people give him credit for. (Which is not to say he is a good or even great developer. The gameplay still...well, we'll get to that in a moment.) Subtle use of Edith Piaf

and the revelation that the Luteces were essentially playing everyone

in particular is what stood out to me.

...Je vois la vie en rose...

Gameplay-wise, it was a bit refreshing to do more stealthy play...though I must admit, I am annoyed that it often seemed like the only option. Plus, gunplay still sucked even with the crossbow, and sometimes I felt my traps and noisemakers refused to hit their mark. It's an improvement but not that much. I am a bit proud of myself for being able to complete the Columbia section of the game through stealth alone, at least. It's possible I could tackle 1998 Mode, aka "This Is Now Just Thief: The Dark Project," knowing this. Do I want to? Eeeh...I dunno. I think this is the last I'll see of this trilogy.

Still, I enjoyed playing Infinite, even if it's been shellacked to high hell. There is a game there that did something, which is hard for a lot of games to say. What it did...a lot of gamers probably hate it for that alone. But then, I'm reminded of a thought that came to me while watching someone stream Fallout: New Vegas. His co-commentator said that he was still bitter, over a decade later, at the way the Lonesome Road DLC turned out. And I thought, "How sad...to be bitter over something as fucking trivial and stupid as a video game. For years, at that."

Of course...eh, it ain't worth dwelling or ego stroking. Already enough of that around here.

What next? Fiesta Season comes in next Sunday. In between will be Steam Next Fest, so I will probably do my regular "play an obscene number of demos over the course of a week" thing with these things. Before that...I'll see what I can do with Pilotwings 64.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Summon Night - Chapter 2 cleared. Got Claret, saved Fizz from Banossa and found out more about the reason we're in Lyndbaum to begin with. Turns out Natsumi's summoning was accidental. To try and make up for her masters putting Natsumi in this situation, Claret agrees to try and be a helping hand despite the Flat crew's mistrust of summoners, those guys are all snobs in this game.

To prove this she teaches Natsumi how to use the Pledge of Summoning technique to help give the others the ability to call upon summons that she pledges to, and help the crew out if Banossa ever gets in their hair again, which is handy bc the dude is harassing them to try and become a summoner himself.

Chapter 3 is the chapter where we're introduced to the Gilden Society, so I'm looking forward to Gazel being an asshole and breaking into their banquet later today. They had it coming.

Dragon Quest III (NES) - Just started, using the default party (Hero, Soldier, Pilgrim, Wizard). Accidental full geezer party. Upgrading weapons at Reeve before heading down the promontory cave to Najima.

EDIT: Well, I've gotten the Thief's Key, I took the time to spend like a couple of hours? Fast forwarded ofc, to fully equip everyone with the best equips in Reeve, particularily the Shell Armor (Tortoise shell), Leather Helmet (Leather hat), and Chain Sickle. It's very stupid, but look. It's worth it lmao.

After getting the key, we got the Magic Ball (Wrecking ball) from the old man in Reeve, and headed to the Shrine at the cape to reach the Path of Promise to the north. Romaly (Romaria) was neat, I could do the scenarios of this central Europe to Mediterranean area in any order but first I went after the gays' favorite, Kandar (Robbin 'Ood) at the Tower of Shanpane (Skyfell Tower). He and his lackeys were fucking tough, but we managed, thanks to the Wizard (Theron)'s Magic Knife.

Erdrick being crowned king is kind of funny, I really like this goof, but it's a bit inconvenient that Romaly's King keeps asking you to take over for him everytime you want to save, c'est la vie. Got the Iron spear (Iron lance), Broad Sword (Steel broadsword), Iron Armor (Iron armour) and Iron Shield (Scale shield).

Doing the underground lake to dispel the sleeping spell on Noaniels (Norvik) was a pain, but that was mostly bc I thought the healing spring tile was a hurt tile, lmao. Took a few runs but I managed. Restored Noaniels, got the Poison Needle at Kanave (Khoryv), and I've also gotten the Cloak of Evasion. I might buy another weapon for the Wizard for more reliable physical attacks to go along with the Poison Needle's RNG instakill. Gotta conserve the MP.

Currently at Assaram (Asham) to get 2500 Gold for a Battle Axe (Iron axe), already got one for my Soldier. I should add, one of the guides I'm occasionally giving a look see just in case a dungeon seems way too tough, has this in the Version History.
04/30/2023 - v1.0.1

Edited Zoma Citadel section. Final bosses in the boss gauntlet WILL respawn if you leave the dungeon (thanks aterra former).
I wish him a pec-induced puff-puff in his future (fortune telling in this release). I know he wouldn't like it.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Dragon Quest III - Went through Isis, got the Meteorite Armband, did the Pyramid and looted the goods (including the Golden Claw in the basement), got the Wizard's Ring, visited Portoga, visited Baharata, saved Galen and Tania from Robbin 'Ood, got Pepper, got the Ship, visited Tedanki, Lancel and Eginbear, got the Lamp of Darkness and Vase of Drought, deposited a Merchant at Soo, visited the Sunken Shrine, got the Final Key, got the Green Orb.

I'm gonna grind to Lv20 to get my Wizard to a Sage with the Book of Satori by doing that sidequest. After I get a few levels on him as a Sage, I might change my Pilgrim to a Goofoff for dual Sage-ing purposes.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Trials of Mana (remake) - *bonequest voice* hgualhgulaghuglhlaglhglaluhg grinded a bit, finished Gusthall and killed Horcypete. This was too draining for me to do Laurent on the spot, esp since I wanna level up a bit just in case in preparation for the requisite wall boss who in this game is also a furnace?? Man this game got hard in the leap to 3D. I might play it tomorrow but I kind of want to do Summon Night 1 chapter 3 + Sivon's sidequest too oosp [sic]

I've also been culling some games I haven't really started (Mario Sunshine replay and Sonic Mania PC port playthrough exempt) from my backlog so I'm sorry Snails but the playthrough of your obana game is indefinately postponed. Please do not take this the wrong way, I promise I don't hate you



volume warning at the very end after "pattern clear" im not shitting here

EDIT: oh yeah cw rape mention oopsie (it's bonequest so it just comes with the territory. i'm very sorry)
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by Bean »

Haven't had as much time for Tears of the Kingdom this week, but I've done a ton in the game as is. At this point, it's just a matter of figuring out which side quests I want to do and then focus on the somewhat long final push to the end here! Pretty enjoyable game, but it's to be expected since it's basically Breath of the Wild with more imagination and exploration involved.
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Final Fantasy IX - i was craving an rpg so i picked this one through random.org based on what's left on my RPG backlog. Did the Prologue of sorts in Alexandria and the Evil Forest. Took a few hours to grind out the available abilities. I missed out on the Mage Masher sadly, and I didn't bother to get the Moonstone, but I have to specify something.

I'm gonna do most of the game, but I'm not going for 100%. I do want to do an Excalibur II run eventually, not right now ofc, but I really, really don't want to bother with Tetra Master too much. Whether your move succeeds or not is kind of RNG due to how the hex values correspond to a range of numbers, 0 being 000 to 015, 1 being 016 to 031... It makes the bouts kind of a gamble and that's where the game fails for me. It's simply not as accessible as Triple Triad, which is a problem if you're making a card game mechanic.

LOOK AT THIS UNHINGED BULLSHIT

I am NOT getting all cards. As an aside I also don't care about the Jump Rope minigame, and I tried the swordplay minigame 8 times? For funsies bc QTEs make brain good, but, I'm not gonna grind it for a whole hour trying to get the speed just right for 100 Nobles + Queen Brahne. I got 95 + Queen. That was the highest I've gotten this run, and I still just gave up at around 65, no Queen. Who cares.

This is not a perfect game. I will do stuff like Hot and Cold, Ozma, Tantarian, I missed Tantarian entirely all those years ago, I think I was still mostly posting on Talkhaus back then circa 2015? May have been during my SMWC phase. Ozma is actively my shit and I wanna fight her again. She owns. She's kinda SaGa-esque tbh.

Adding some more stuff to my bucket.txt (.xls), and I gotta ask. Am I really willing to sit through a fuck ton of Chinese DOS RPGs just because they look funny or cute? Yeah, I am. I just don't know how I'm gonna tackle Empire of Angels, or even Mary Skelter, regardless of that series being Japanese. They're kinda horny, and I'm worried about coming off as a total weirdo... It should be fine, I guess?

:reimuko:

Can't wait to start Xuan Yuan Sword 3 and Scar of the Sky tbh! ...Oh, is XY3 getting a Switch remake? I'll buy it sometime, even if its translation inevitably turns out to be shit. Legend of the Chivalrous Hero 3 (Xia Ke Ying Shong Chuan 3, need to learn how to pronounce that correctly soon ^^) also looks super lovely. Fantasy Wind too... Ah I wanna play more Western DOS RPGs too. EXP Excellent Potato and Arcturus look super cute too...

I refuse to believe FF9 Memoria Project will be allowed to finish sadly. :( Wasn't FF9 getting a cartoon too? Seems its been pretty silent since 2021... Still need to watch the Legend of Mana anime, I was hyperfocusing on that game and its lovely cast, a bit some days ago, falling head over heels over how dear to me everyone was and still is.

Anyway man I really wanna draw the ladies, NPCs and monsters + Zidane, Vivi and Kuja, I love their designs. Oh, and Steiner, Marcus, Cinna and Baku. the latter four, for reasons. the hypocrisy is palpable!

Coffee for now, then on to the Evening of Calling (召喚の夜)! ...It's a Summon Night joke. That's what Seawar named his Summon Night level in his hack. I am gonna play Summon Night 1 on the PlayStation Single Ballin'.

continuing from my bonequest poasting, funny ass shit
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by raekuul »

MMBN4: points hunting.

Pokemon Red: I forgot that I'd started a game of this a while back. Up to the Celadon/Lavender/Saffron loop (3 badges but haven't fought Surge yet which is screwing with me)

Xenoblade 3 DLC: Elevator repaired.

Baldur's Gate: F/M/T Triple Class. Working on doing sidequests before starting on the Bandit Camp (because screw doing bandit camp at CLev 2). I do have Protection from Petrification in my grimoire so abusing Mutamin's Garden is on the table, but I don't particularly want to resort to doing that. (I'm used to making Gorion's Ward into a cleric and I'm not doing that this time so I don't have my usual toolkit but I'm also not at the point where I would have had my usual toolkit yet anyway)
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by KobaBeach »

Summon Night - Chapter 3 finish! And it was kind of emotional.. To sum it up, Claret has been cooped up in her room all this time so Lipre and Gazel suggest I speak to her since she might be afraid of how many men there are in the house (the only girls being me and Lipre and two of the little kids). It proved fruitless, however, she merely agreed to speak with people more.

Leid was also worried about my use of my new Summoning Magic, I managed to dissuade his fears, saying I was still kind of afraid, but that what I do with it is my responsibility so I should be careful about using it only for good. Rami also missed her real mom a lot, Lipre explained to her that she's in heaven. The little girl did say that as long as she's with mommy Lipre and everyone of the Flat Crew, she's happy, though. I guess even if Gazel makes her cry by accident. Lastly, I helped out Alba with butterfly catching.

Dropping by to decompress in the Galeff Woods, I run into a hunter. Sivon explains that there are a lot of dangerous Strays in this area and that they've even killed several people, so she leads me back out, thankfully. Lastly I check out the Arch River, where Edos has decided to relax for a while, he invites me to nap a bit in the sun. He also introduces me to the riverside flowers known as Rauksa Blossoms (Arusakku in JP, pardon the localization), which are the same as cherry blossoms (sakura) in my (Natsumi's) world, to an extent.

We explain flower viewing to him and he decides to take the people of the orphanage on a small picnic and Rauksa viewing the next day, to help myself feel more at home. I worry about making him doing something just for my sake, but the big guy's jolly enough. I ask Claret if she's okay with this sudden trip, and she's more or less fine with it, saying she will "view the flowers as much as she can".

However when we get there, the blossom trees are surrounded by tents and tables. The nobles also came for a flower viewing. Unable to do anything we simply eat Lipre's lunch elsewhere, as the most important thing here, is to make Claret feel welcome. Gazel, though, has an idea. After we ate Lipre's delish cooking, he decides to sneak into the nobles' camp to swipe some food, with me in tow. Of course I didn't like the idea, but what can you do. Claret is currently busy with the kids trying (and I cannot stress that enough) to make flower necklaces.

After tricking the knights in the tent into thinking we're part of the food crew, we get to eating. Sadly this alerts the minister of governmental affairs, Imran Mahn himself. He's pretty pissed off that some "filthy commoners" are starting shit - yeah the game is pretty silly, it's very shonen anime - so he decides to use his powers as a Summoner of the Gilden Society (can't really do alliteration like Gold Guild and Cerulean Society here :c ) to whoop our asses.

Took me a few tries, but we managed after reloading buying a few Bandaids. Using Claret's absurd Magic Def to tone down the Taquesi's lightning bolt damage was key as get it to waste its MP, and I had to sadly sacrifice Edos to get Imran to waste all of his MP. Kiting as usual was a good strategy as it always is in Summon Night SRPGs, I feel.

Also managed to figure out the text skip cheat. It activates until you shut off or reset the console, though. During the place name title card, hold select (you can hold it before the dialogue scene loads) and press Square, Circle, Triangle, Cross. You have enough time to do this if your reaction speed is adequate enough, if you're super old though, I'd suggest getting a relative, friend or neighbor. Lord knows I'll still be playing this in my old age. After that, holding Cross fast forwards through any text. For the rest of the mainline games you have to hold R2 and Cross, no code input.

After that we had a stern talking to, Leid went a bit easy on us (he shouldn't really), but Lipre dished out the punishment by not giving us any dinner that night (it's the early 2000s, plus Lipre, Gazel and Natsumi are all 17 so it's fine). Later I went to get Edos, since he was still at the river. Turns out the reason he wanted to do the flower viewing so bad, was that he used to do it with the mason he was an apprentice to, his work under him being the reason he's so buff now (along with just wanting to work for the "family").

He talks about the good times he had with the mason, a very kind and warm person who he truly cherished. Until an encounter with a drunkard took his life with a swift stab wound to the gut. After that all his old friends departed to elsewhere, the glue that held them together being gone for good. But it doesn't matter because now he has the Flat crew. And that he's sure the old man is still watching over him from the great beyond. But ends by saying that it's a pretty dumb, boring story.

We try to explain that it really isn't, and that we really didn't understand that it really meant so much to him. And that we're kind of "worried" that the mason thought Natsumi was some idiot brat for doing what she and Gazel did. But Edos reassures us that the old man probably just laughed his ass off at the whole nonsense.

At the rooftop, after being sent to bed with no dinner, Edos remarks that if we were gonna go to the Gilden Society's camp, that we should have invited him too. This was a super good chapter. Super cute and super well written, even if we discount some "anime moments", like Imran being pretty cartoony.

Will try to play more when I have the strength to. There's just a bit of text, so please understand :c

Also been adding more non-RPGs to my backlog's 'bucket.xls' page, Doctor Hauzer, OverBlood 1&2, Warp's Laura trilogy (D, Enemy Zero, D2), the survival horror Resis (1-3, 0, CV, 7&8) + RE4 and the 1.5 proto (5 and 6 look so boring...), Silent Hill 1-3 (considered 4 but...), Onimusha 1-4 (i am aware 3 is the bad one), J.B. Harold, organized the Mega Mens, wanna add Devil May Cry, Bayo, Jake Hunter, Phoenix Wright... I'll try to update the Google mirror soon, I wanna get most of what's already there RPG-wise, already organized.

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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by thatguyif »

So I've been misled. Next Fest is next week, not this week. :toaster:

I need to do something in the meantime, and I'm unmotivated to write much. I'll try to knock out two short games over the course of this week. Targets: Evoland and Exo One. Given there's little exploration in either, I think I'll get them done before the start of Fiesta. Maybe.

Speaking of Fiesta, doing things a little different this year by not starting with a regular/vanilla run. Instead I'll do Typhoon run (which emphasizes Wind and Water jobs). I might follow it up with an Onion run...

Also...hang-gliding in Pilotwings 64 is hot garbage, hoo boy
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Re: What games are you playing?

Post by raekuul »

I still haven't taken FFV past the second set of crystals. I should play through it one of these days. (I technically haven't beaten 8 yet either but I got to the Final Boss years ago when I was streaming it).

Pokemon Red speedchoice: Beat Surge for Thunderbolt for my Dragonair, then made a bee-line for the Silph Co. Lapras. Now I've got a level 15 lapras and a bunch of trainers I haven't fought yet. Thank you speedchoice for giving me better EXP Sharing options (but I wasted my one Ice Beam TM on Clefable. I forget where the Blizzard TM is but that's going on the Lapras once I find it)
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