What games are you playing?

[Bedlam]

I picked up Rhythm Heaven Megamix. It's my first rhythm heaven game, and holy geez it's fun.

Other than that I've been playing BDO. I joined an RP guild so I have not been around here much at all lately

[Ashan]

Breath of the Wild got me into a Zelda mood again, so I started up a new game of Wind Waker HD yesterday.

I only ever beat the HD version on Wii U once, so my plan was to play through hero mode, and I thought that's what the second playthrough was (when you play through in your pajamas and can read the Hylian text) but I noticed that it wasn't any harder, and when I checked the difficulty on file select it said it was normal mode. I don't remember if that's a change from the Gamecube version or what.

[pholtos]

So I've been a bit busy with metroidvania-ish games recently.

I beat the swapper, which I half feel would have been nice to LP but it's a tad dark for what I'd typically do. Ending left much to be desired and overall felt like it the whole story wasn't explained quite enough.

I beat you have to win the game, a free metroidvania on steam. Fun little game, I'm just missing a few achievements, got 100% on it.

[Ashan]

Having a great time playing through Wind Waker HD still.

I noticed since making my last post that apparently Hero Mode is a toggle on the file select screen, which I never noticed before. When you select your file, you can highlight the "mode" and switch between Normal and Hero modes whenever you want. Which seems like a weird choice. I would switch to hero mode but it doesn't feel genuine if I only switched partway through.

I'm just about to do the Shadow Temple which I'm excited about cause it was one of my favorites from this game.

[Alice]

That sounds... Really bad. However shitty games are my thing

I might watch an LP of it first to see what you mean though.

I will say that the last two chapters are actually really decent. And the last chapter especially gives a lot of answers as well as explaining plenty of the stuff I complained about earlier. So while it doesn't really excuse some of those bad design decisions there's at least a valid reason for them being there.

The last chapter especially though is a total mindfuck. And a bit hard on the eyes in a couple of spots. Like everything makes sense in the end but the process of getting to that point is just weird as hell, lol.

[Mayrio]

I see. I guess you're implying that the last two chapters are worth it for enduring chapter 3?

And I'm used to getting my mind blown, I've played and seen crazy twists in Zero Escape :P

[Alice]

I see. I guess you're implying that the last two chapters are worth it for enduring chapter 3?

Yeah, I'd say they're worth powering through the rest of the game. Both of them were extremely interesting and chapter 4 wasn't too terrible either. Also the unrealistic stuff I complained about in chapter 3 it turns out did have a valid reasoning behind it. Though you won't find this out until the final chapter.

[Zummorr]

I recently played some easy SHMUPS! Wayforward's "Catgirl get no salad." and Sexy Parodius for the Sega Saturn.

Catgirl get no salad, never have I been so overwhelmed by a game so easy. At the same time though, it really felt like Wayforward was trying to market a new Nickelodeon cartoon, akin to fairly odd parents.

Sexy Parodius was a thing. Atleast it didn't break my face like typical Gradius games.

At the same time the puns/visual gags of both games were amazing. "Corn-ichiwa" and "Chef-irroth"

[Whimsical Calamari]

outrun is pretty good on genesis
some weird visual glitches but yeah

[Ashan]

I finished Wind Waker HD a couple nights ago and started Twilight Princess HD last night.

I've beaten TP I think 2 times before, but I only ever had the Wii version, so I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around the world being un-mirrored. I always found the layouts of the areas in TP to be confusing in the first place, and having everything flipped just makes it worse since I feel like the area is familiar and I kinda know my way around, but I don't at all in reality.

It seems like a lot of the maps in TP really tried to stay away from sharp North/South/East/West directions, and made things built with a lot more weird diagonals, subtle turns, etc. in the geography. I think that might be why I have so much trouble learning TP's areas.

Oh, also the horse controls in TPHD are shit. I swear they were never this bad in the original.

[Mayrio]

I see. I guess you're implying that the last two chapters are worth it for enduring chapter 3?

Yeah, I'd say they're worth powering through the rest of the game. Both of them were extremely interesting and chapter 4 wasn't too terrible either. Also the unrealistic stuff I complained about in chapter 3 it turns out did have a valid reasoning behind it. Though you won't find this out until the final chapter.

Unfortunately I watched an LP of Danganronpa Another Story before watching one for DR2(I heard that Another Story is chronologically the next one after DR1), and the commentator kind of spoiled some things for me about the game since he had LP'd it before doing DR Another Story.

He said something along the lines of this (spoilers, obviously)

About the island in DR2 being in some sort of virtual reality simulated world. Now I don't know why that's the case but it just kind of seems out of left field for these games. DR1 is (sort of) a game about logic, and then in the next game it goes full science fiction on us. I know virtual reality technology exists right now, and DR seems to take place in the future at some point, but it doesn't seem to be that far, and the technology we've got right now is in no way advanced enough to simulate the world of DR2.

[Alice]

He said something along the lines of this (spoilers, obviously)

About the island in DR2 being in some sort of virtual reality simulated world. Now I don't know why that's the case but it just kind of seems out of left field for these games. DR1 is (sort of) a game about logic, and then in the next game it goes full science fiction on us. I know virtual reality technology exists right now, and DR seems to take place in the future at some point, but it doesn't seem to be that far, and the technology we've got right now is in no way advanced enough to simulate the world of DR2.

While I don't necessarily disagree with your point about it being kinda unrealistic you should keep in mind that Monokuma is an extremely advanced robot to begin with and Alter Ego is a legitimate AI. The second one definitely does feel a lot more unrealistic but there's definitely some basis for those unrealistic bits. The parts that seemed most unrealistic to me are explained by it being a simulation. And those two parts in particular are quite unrealistic even compared to the whole AI and simulation thing.

[Bean]

Along with Powered Up stuff, I've been playing two new games for a change. The Mario & Sonic Rio game on the Wii U which is pretty fun (no motion controls is a plus since Sega's not good at that stuff) and Mighty No. 9 on the PS4 which is not as bad as I thought it would be... yet.

[TheFinalSentinel]

Finished up the Pokkén single player stuff.

Finally back on Xenoblade X. Gonna wrap this up; not big on the million sidequests, though I'll do affinity for characters I care for.
Also the soundtrack.


In other news, I'm one step closer to beating Persona Q. I beat one of the last sidequests I have left, and have a good enough setup for the last one. Just need a bit of luck and I've got it, then on to the final boss.
Worried a bit about the final boss. I think I'm 15-20 levels short what I should be, and I'm talking MC. God help my party members.
...and on Risky difficulty no less.

[YelseyKing]

So, I finished Xenogears yesterday...

Long post! Spoiler-filled and all. Because yeah. I posted this on Facebook, but since it was a private group, and no one here has friended me anyhow, no one here would've seen it. Posting my thoughts in modified form from there:

Final thoughts on the game overall are that, for the most part, it aged pretty well. There's certainly a lot I'd like to have seen, the obvious thing being a fully fleshed-out disc 2, but a text speed toggle option, the ability to get *out* of your Gears in battle, and the option to skip cutscenes would have also been nice. Maybe a battle speed-up option, too, since as flashy as Deathblows are, all the animations can take a while to play out, perhaps making battles slower-paced than they should have been. Some consumable items to restore Gear HP and/or Fuel would also have been a godsend... or at least making the Frame Repair a built-in option, or completely separate slot, rather than having to waste a precious universal accessory slot on one. Also, the dubbing, dear gods. So bad.

Revisiting the game after a decade and a half, I have to say that I actually *understood* the plot this time through, pretty much fully. Reading TV Tropes' analyses as well as the translated Perfect Works did help a lot, however, as there are still terms, such as "Annonelbe" (essentially [ispoiler]"the one who will destroy God and free mankind"[/ispoiler]) were never explained in the game. There were many things I didn't catch the last time I played the game, such as[ispoiler]Emeralda's discovery and subsequent abduction by Krelian being the catalyst for much of the disc 2 events, as it gave Krelian insights to nanotechnology as he never had before.[/ispoiler] Also, I'd always thought it a plot hole that your [ispoiler]Omnigears are "stripped" of their Anima Relics and changed back into their normal forms, even though it was clear that some, such as Fenrir and Andvari, were separate entities... but that isn't actually what happened. It just shows the Omnigears being absorbed by Deus. Then, and in another thing I'd missed, Melchior is the one who returned them to faux-Omnigear state via nanomachines. Man. Is there anything they *can't* do? [/ispoiler]

That said, there were still a few questions remaining that I've not seen addressed anywhere. Namely, [ispoiler]Id destroys Solaris at the end of disc 1, but this doesn't hinder the villains in the slightest. Where, then, are they operating from? Where is Emperor Cain's throne, and where are the Gazel Ministry located? I'd always suspected the "Fishbowl" battleship, but I've not seen that confirmed anywhere... and it doesn't appear in disc 2, anyhow. Moreover, where the heck did Ft. Hurricane come from? Despite being completely obliterated, it doesn't look like Solaris suffered any damage at all come disc 2.[/ispoiler]

And... from all I've read, and from my experience, it seems there are issues with the game running on anything but PSX. Running it on PS2, I encountered several glitches. Most common, there would often be little distortions in the music, like a louder than normal, incorrect note here and there, completely at random. The game would also freeze occasionally, usually during screen transitions and at the start or end of battle. This only happened about a half-dozen times (and in a ~60 hour game, that's not *too* bad), so it's still playable. There's also an issue with the Deus battle freezing when it uses a certain attack (fortunately, not always, but often *enough* that I had to repeat the battle *six* times before it didn't freeze... fortunately, the cutscene before it is very short), and it seems that the game freezes if you win a match in the Kislev Battle Arena on disc 2... not sure what causes that, since it worked fine on disc 1, but... eh. Optional anyhow, so...

Or: tl;dr, the game aged pretty well, but definitely could've benefitted from more development time, I actually understood the plot this time, and it's kinda buggy when played on a PS2. Yay!

And, it's on to Final Fantasy XIII-2. One of those games on my "to play this year" list, which I've... not really done so much with yet. Hooray! Seems like the same overall gameplay as the original, just with tweaks and whatnot. I've only just started, so we'll see how it goes as I progress.

[TheFinalSentinel]

Or: tl;dr, the game aged pretty well, but definitely could've benefitted from more development time...

Looking at my copy of Final Fantasy 8, I shed a single tear.

[Whimsical Calamari]

does anybody know anything about OutRun on Genesis? I've noticed some easter eggs popping up (a jet flying over the road, and a Sega blimp), as well as a credits sequence+extended ending (which I've only seen once). Wasn't sure if there were flags for those/what they were.

i'm thinking there are two possibilities for the ending: either a score over 10 million(edit: nope) or having all the routes logged. not sure what it could be til i hit one of those marks though.

also i just realized there were three more difficulty levels above 'normal'. i'm afraid

[HatKid]

FE3: finally worked up the motivation to beat Chapter 14. No more dragons for a little bit
Played Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles up to year two, then I haven't actually bothered to continue.
Been playing Chrono Cross on and off for the past couple weeks. Got to the part where you go get the Water Dragon's Protection(?) I don't exactly remember what it's called. The battle system is stupid, more so with elements. Like seriously, who designed that. "Oh yeah, we finally gave a Revive element to you... but unless you have more, you can only you it once! lolol" And no reviving items have been found (Maybe they don't exist?)

[YelseyKing]

Or: tl;dr, the game aged pretty well, but definitely could've benefitted from more development time...

Looking at my copy of Final Fantasy 8, I shed a single tear.

I actually *like* FF8, but I have to say, I'd much rather they have left the resources to Xenogears. Hell, even as it stands, XG is, at least in my opinion, the better game of the two. Even with as much as it got cut, I still like it better.

[TheFinalSentinel]

EDIT: GOT EM! Finally, after so long, I have done everything in Persona Q there is to do (without grinding that is, screw the level 55 sidequest and the compendium).

Final boss, HERE I COME!
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Or: tl;dr, the game aged pretty well, but definitely could've benefitted from more development time...

Looking at my copy of Final Fantasy 8, I shed a single tear.

I actually *like* FF8, but I have to say, I'd much rather they have left the resources to Xenogears. Hell, even as it stands, XG is, at least in my opinion, the better game of the two. Even with as much as it got cut, I still like it better.

Pretty much.
FF8 has some SERIOUS story problems as far as pacing and dropping info. The Junction system needed work. The enemy scaling needed some work...
But it wasn't bad.

But then again, if Xenogears got to keep the budget and talent that was taken from it to give to 8's development...

[AmeijinMayo]

I've been playing Puyo Puyo!! 2oth Anniversary on my off time when I'm not working on this video project I've been making. This game is just solid through and through. It's got a variety of modes that changes the pace when you do want to play the main scenario. Playing through a round with cpu is nice, but I'm sure playing against a friend would be even better.

[Mayrio]

While I don't necessarily disagree with your point about it being kinda unrealistic you should keep in mind that Monokuma is an extremely advanced robot to begin with and Alter Ego is a legitimate AI. The second one definitely does feel a lot more unrealistic but there's definitely some basis for those unrealistic bits. The parts that seemed most unrealistic to me are explained by it being a simulation. And those two parts in particular are quite unrealistic even compared to the whole AI and simulation thing.

I guess I shouldn't really be over analyzing this since this is only a video game and not all of them are, well, logical.

Also I decided to not be lazy and buy Zero Time Dilemma today. In the semi short time that I played it I got super excited and as soon as I wake up tomorrow I'm probs going to turn on my 3DS right away to continue it. I also took a ton of notes on what was happening and my thoughts. Here they are: (note: these notes have semi early game spoilers so unless you've beaten the game already I don't recommend reading through this)

It’s been a while when ZTD came out, and I’ve finally decided to not be lazy, go out to my local video game store and buy some 3DS points cards, enter in the codes, and finally, buy the digital version. It is downloading right now, and I’m excited. From the looks of it, it might take a while to finish. I guess that’s something I saw coming considering the size of this game and my okayish internet.

I guess I should also say that I’ve played 999 and VLR already and have gotten all the endings, so there will be spoilers for all three games. Beware!

--

It has been about 15 minutes and it’s only 9% done. *sigh* I guess I’m an impatient person, but I want to see what happens at the test site already. I want to have the question “How was Radical 6 even there?” answered.

--

I don’t know how long it’s been since my last note, but right now it’s at 51%. I’m just over the halfway mark. I wonder how Junpei and Sigma will act in this game, since in Junpei’s case this is before he became the pessimistic old man he was in VLR, and Sigma will have his 67 year old mind.

--

The game has finally finished downloading! The icon and the title screen thingy on the top screen look decent enough. It seems that there’s a bracelet thing with a timer on it on the icon, with 00:00 on the display. I wonder what that’s about? Guess I’ll find out soon enough.

--

So I just hit new game, “coincide” appeared for a short while, and now it’s showing a cutscene of some jail cells in the Nevada Desert, presumably during December 31st, 2028. I guess there’s no way it’d be any other date because of the whole line graph thing in the B. Garden on Rhizome 9. The models for the characters look kind of off for me, as well as a few of the animations. And it’s only been 30 seconds? I hope I’ll get used to this.

Anyway, some guy accuses a kid with a helmet on that they put the bracelets on them, but of course, the kid(sounds like a boy) says he didn’t do it, and the way he said it sounds like he’s crying. I feel kinda bad for him. And after that, a person wearing some black clothes with a weird mask thing on comes into the room. I gotta be honest, the what’s supposed to be the nose piece(I guess) looks so much like a penis.

Penis man flips a coin with a red and blue side, and explains just that to the nine people trapped. I guess I should mention who the people are at this point. There’s Sigma and Phi obviously, the kid, what seems to be Junpei, a woman with a red shirt, another woman “showing off” parts of her breasts(what is it with these games and breasted women?), two other guys that I don’t really know how to explain since they look pretty similar to me, and one more woman with purple eyes. I didn’t really get a good look at her, and I’m kind of bad at describing people. Sorry! After that, penis man says you have to guess which side it is on correctly for your freedom. If they don’t then apparently 6 people have to die.

This coincides with the Mars Mission test site transmission, where a woman at the test site says “Six of us are dead.” So I guess they get it wrong?

Oh, and I now know at this point that the purple eyed woman is Akane. Wow, how did I not get that sooner? And then for no apparent reason, penis man puts all the pressure on “carlos,” who is the leader of all nine of them for some reason. He says that his answer will be their final decision.

Okay, so I get to choose. I’m getting the feeling that this is going to pull the same shit they did in VLR. When you choose “ally,” the other “betrays.” When you “betray,” the other “allies.” I’m going with blue because I like that color better than red. :P

Good, I was right. Or maybe if I chose red, it would’ve been red? I could totally see them doing that. And now penis man is saying he needs a nap, and that we will forget everything that just happened. Great. He walks away without explaining how we will forget, and then everyone collapses. I guess they lost consciousness or got hit by Soporil or something.

The top screen shows “payoff” for a few seconds. Then, everyone is awake and outside in the desert. The red shirted woman asks about the bracelets, because they aren’t wearing them anymore. Maybe they really are out? And Phi is really short when compared to Sigma, at least in that cutscene. They try to remember the coin flipping scene, but can’t. The woman with big breasts asks who the kid with the helmet is, and…

Credits? What? Okay… What the hell was that? Did I really just beat the game? Well damn, that was easy. I guess the actual game is down the “red” side path.

Which reminds me of the matrix, when Neo has to choose between the red and blue pill. The blue pill would make him live the life he always has, and the red one would “awaken” him from that life. Maybe this is some sort of reference to that? Or it could all be just a coincidence, who knows.

So I waited a while for the credits to end, pressed a few buttons and skipped it. I didn’t realize you could, because you couldn’t in 999 and VLR. A “skip” button or something would’ve been nice. Now it’s showing “CQD-END: 1” with a sun symbol next to it. My first ending, woo.

Now I’m on a select screen with 3 options: C team, Q team, and D team. C team has a photo of Carlos, Q has the kid with the helmet, and D has the red shirted woman. I don’t really have a preference so I’ll go with C team.

Now I’m back at the coin decision. I guess I really do have to get it wrong. Welp, red it is, down the rabbit hole.

Junpei acts all smug and rubs it in the breasted woman’s face(he said it was blue, she said it was red) and then the other guy I can’t describe calls Carlos an asshole for getting it wrong. Wow, what the fuck? There’s no way he could’ve known what it really was, you idiot. The red shirted woman says that Carlos isn’t to be blamed. Thank god there’s someone with actual sense.

So the next cutscene shows Carlos waking up, with the “asshole” guy yelling at the kid with the helmet saying that he brought them here. He says again that he didn’t, and the breasted woman, Mira, tells the asshole guy, Eric, to let it go.

--

So apparently the kid’s name is Q. Why, I don’t know. The red shirted woman’s name is Diana, too. It looks like the entire facility is divided into three sections. C quadrant, Q quadrant, and D quadrant, and being C team, we’re in C quadrant. Carlos, is the leader of our team, which is just him, Akane, and Junpei. Q team is Q, Eric, and Mira, and as the name implies, Q is the leader of that team(which Eric was amusingly not happy about!), and there’s D team, which is Sigma, Phi, and Diana. Diana is the leader of this team, unsurprisingly.

--

In each quadrant there’s an “X door” that each lead to the same elevator that will take them above ground. To open the X door, you need 6 of these “X passes.” And how do you get these passwords? Well, when someone dies, an X pass is announced. Just great, so this is what penis man meant when “Six of you have to die.”

Penis man gives us an opportunity to get 3 X pass codes, by voting to kill off another team! Yay! The team with the most votes will die. It’s kind of like the AB game, it has the same level of trust and mind gaminess. Only the leader can submit their vote, and each team gets one vote. If a team refuses to vote then they automatically get two votes against them which will kill them.

And now I’m back at the team selection screen.

--

I took a small break to take everything in and look back at everything I just wrote. I’m sticking with C team for now, let’s see where it takes us.

The text “Execution: C” shows for a bit, then goes to a cutscene showing all the rooms in the quadrant. It plays a remixed version if a song in 999 during the central staircase, and I like it. Carlos mentions something about an experiment with Dcom, and Junpei tells him off because Penis man said he was Zero (the second) awhile back.

--

So there was this dog named Gab(Gab came through an air duct that seems to be connected to Q quadrant.), and we’re going with this plan to ensure that no team gets two votes. Carlos sent a message with Gab to explain this plan. C votes for D, D votes for Q, and Q votes for C. However, Junpei wants to fuck it all up and kill off Q team. I’m not going to do that, voting for D team.

Team selection screen again. However it seems that no new parts are unlocked in C team, so I’m forced to go with Q or D. I guess I’ll go with Q because I want to learn more about kid Q.

“Execution: Q” appears on the screen. Another cutscene that shows all the rooms in this quadrant happens. Q quadrant has different rooms than C quadrant as somewhat expected, but Q quadrant seems to have a more “scientific” focus while C quadrant looked like your average underground base to survive.

--

So Eric has a map of Q quadrant, and refuses to show it to kid Q. Mira takes the map from Eric and shows it to kid Q because Eric is being an unnecessary dick to a scared kid. Now the map of Q quadrant is saved in our archive thingy, yay. Eric continues to be a dick to kid Q and asks him to take the helmet off, even after the fact when he says he can’t. He tries to force it off, but fails(and probably a good thing because he could’ve broken his neck, at least according to kid Q himself). There’s a password input thingy on kid Q’s helmet. I guess we need to find the password to unlock it. Also Q has amnesia, isn’t that just great? First Seven, then K, and now this kid.

--

Voting time. Q team got the note and sent if off to D team. Obviously I’m voting in according to the note, so C team it is.

--

Going to D team. “Execution: D” appears on the screen. We don’t really go over anything important, there’s a reference to a joke in VLR, and then I vote for Q team as planned.

--

So apparently I need to go through all scenarios to progress - Which is really stupid if you ask me. I don’t feel like I’m going down a path of my choice, I feel like I’m one of those completionist people that want to get everything right away. And somehow I can’t get the one where D team dies - Everytime I try it shows me a cutscene of C team dying.

So I went ahead and picked a random fragment in C team. Now we’re actually getting into the escape part of the game. I remember the Rec Room from VLR, I wonder if this room references the other one in any way?

[Alice]

Also I decided to not be lazy and buy Zero Time Dilemma today. In the semi short time that I played it I got super excited and as soon as I wake up tomorrow I'm probs going to turn on my 3DS right away to continue it.

I haven't played the other two games in the series so I have to wait until those get ported to pc. The store page claims you don't need to play the others to play it but according to the Steam forums it sounds like that's a valid claim in the same way that you wouldn't need to play Danganronpa before Danganronpa 2. You could play it just fine but you'd miss the significance of certain things and very significant parts of the first game would get spoiled.

It sounds like the sort of game I'd be quite interested in though. I'm a big fan of murder mysteries like those and the Danganronpa series so I'd really like to play them in the future.

[pholtos]

For those of you who have the portal games and have played portal stories: mel, I'd suggest you get it, it was a pretty fun game. :3

I've started working on actually doing all 300 missions in FFTA:Anarchy. After starting up my old save file I've gotten to about 150 missions complete. I am in serious need of members that can take care of the class specific stuff. :P (Wonder if I should just add in a bunch of classes or something. :P)

[YelseyKing]

I've started working on actually doing all 300 missions in FFTA:Anarchy. After starting up my old save file I've gotten to about 150 missions complete. I am in serious need of members that can take care of the class specific stuff. (Wonder if I should just add in a bunch of classes or something. )

Is that the hack that does away with that dumb law system?