What games are you playing?

[TiKi]

Doing PC98 TLoH4 since I'm already doing PC98 TLoH2 (and TLoH3, just for the sake of it, the attack preset icons are borderline incomprehensible). Up to Fighting Level 7 as Avin, buying equipment for Mile now.

Love beating some Flamestrike Sybils (炎撃シビル) while having like 94 EXP left for the next level and then when I beat them it says



this says a lot about our society

This is borderline unbelievable that it's just 16 colours. I suppose having such a large resolution and being able to make good use of dithering (which is a problem for smaller resolutions on LED displays that don't have image blur) makes it easier to pull off. Something that's underrated about old PC-98, Amiga, and Atari ST games with <=32 colours is that it makes everything look like it belongs together, you know? In the 256-colour VGA era we often ran headfirst into issues with that, especially with developers who tried to make lame black-colour-white gradients out of the 16 CGA/EGA colours or the 8 RGB primaries.

plus this is me trying to decide what colour to use for something when i don't restrict myself to a small colour palette

[KobaBeach]

Trying to grind to HP 70/STR 70 on Hydlide PC88 because I'm bored and grinding is alright. Wish PC-8801MA would let me save ingame though.
Also started Terranigma in Japanese, doing the towers.

This is borderline unbelievable that it's just 16 colours. I suppose having such a large resolution and being able to make good use of dithering (which is a problem for smaller resolutions on LED displays that don't have image blur) makes it easier to pull off. Something that's underrated about old PC-98, Amiga, and Atari ST games with <=32 colours is that it makes everything look like it belongs together, you know? In the 256-colour VGA era we often ran headfirst into issues with that, especially with developers who tried to make lame black-colour-white gradients out of the 16 CGA/EGA colours or the 8 RGB primaries.

Some of the big CG art in eroge, visual novels and adventure games on that PC are like amazing. They seem to be a conversion job, but they're done so well.


From Only You: Seikimatsu no Juliet-tachi (NSFW Graphic Adventure/RPG hybrid).

[Bean]

I beat the story mode in Mario Golf: Super Rush. It feels like it's there to serve as a long tutorial more than anything since the AI isn't much of a threat in anything. For that matter, the AI in general is pretty subpar... by always hitting over par. That said, the courses are fun enough. I just prefer the 3DS game to it is all. Still need to try out stuff like Battle Golf, but for now, it looks like a solid enough entry.

[thatguyif]

Fiesta has advanced, and things have gotten interesting. To wit:

• Alef's team maintains its lead. It is the only team that is in striking distance of the Ronkan Ruins, having just gotten the Adamantite. As said, smooth sailing to the end of World 1, probably.
• Bet's team, against all odds again, has made it past Byblos. The reroll to Geomancer certainly helped. Finally, Ranger is unlocked for that team, which makes life quite a bit easier. With that said, it faces an uphill battle with the last major obstacle being Ronkan Ruins. And it's worth noting a team is nipping at its heels after exiting the Desert and approaching Gohn...
• Dalet's team, which is now about to enter the Desert to face Sandworm. Helping its progress: It got Death Sickle in its first battle! This on Berserker can solve a couple tricky bosses in World 2, namely Dragon Flower, Boat Greg, and (possibly) the Crystals. Of course, Sandworm is a...time with Berserker, so it could still suck. I may just kill them to save time.
• Gimel's team finally cleared the Karnak 500, and got for their troubles...Samurai. Very powerful, though a money grind is required with this one. That said, early money grind paid off with quick kills on Ifrit and Byblos. That won't sustain itself, but it's still very promising. And remember that this team has the Advance seed, so they get either Gladiator or Cannoneer, they become extremely powerful. Oracle...will make things weird.

[Bean]

Tetris 99 is fun. The best I can do in that game are top five to ten finishes. The players that hang on for the win are just way too skilled compared to me. Might fluke a win at some point, but that's about it. I did win a team battle, but that was with me losing and finishing third on the squad, so I wouldn't say that counts. Still, for a free game, it's fun. I'm enjoying it.

[thatguyif]

Cursed Fiesta went WILD in last night's long session. Be prepared for a very long read:

Team Alef: Knight/Mystic Knight/Ninja/Samurai!
Current Level: 26
Alef's team still has the lead, but it has collapsed dramatically. They had a strong lead at first because of being able to breeze through the rest of World 1. It did need to do a money grind for scrolls, but otherwise, it got through quickly, along with its last job: Samurai! Four Swords Fiesta! Chibi-cow, play us off.

However, once Alef's team reached Regole...we learned they were broke. They could scarcely afford any new weapons, let alone the level 4 Black Magic/Spellblade spells. They also needed to stock on Hi Potions, especially because there's no healer in the party. Regole area is not particularly known for grinding money. Whoops. While cash flow problems will resolve upon reaching Bal (where Fabulous Prizes await in Gil Turtle cave), getting stocked up has meant the need to grind around Regole, which has been very slow. As a result, this has led another team to surprisingly get close to them, and may surpass them in the next session:

Team Gimel: White Mage/BERSERKER/Samurai/Gladiator!
Current Level: 22
Gimel's team is the major surprise. For most of the Fiesta so far, it had been dead last due to the slow White Mage start. To make matters worse, it went through RNG hell in getting a Death Sickle for Berserker. To put it simply, it took about 90 minutes in-game time from start of grind to get the Death Sickle, which in shuffler time meant 3-4 hours. It was pain, and probably karma for that miracle luck on Dalet's team.

That said, it doubled as a level and money grind, putting the team on very solid footing once they got out of RNG hell. Having Zeninage early made Soul Cannon and the side cannons chumps, though Archaeoavis still was drawn-out due to high defense in the pre-revived form. That revealed the final job, an Advance job: Gladiator! Gladiator is probably the easiest of the Advance Fiesta jobs to really use, since it doesn't require any sort of manipulation (like Oracle) or items you don't get until the end of the game (like Cannoneer) to reach its full potential. It has a freaking Geno Beam attack in the form of Finisher, which has a decent, later high, chance at quad 9s, not to mention the ability to crit.

With a bit of shuffler RNG luck, Team Gimel surpassed both Bet and Dalet's teams very easily. When the session ended, they had just defeated Greg on Big Bridge and were finishing up that area. It's a short distance to Regole, which means they could surpass Alef's team and take the lead in terms of progress. Their money situation is much better going into it as it stands...

Team Dalet: Time Mage/BERSERKER/Black Mage/Ninja!
Current Level: 24
Dalet's team had, as expected, surpassed Bet's team. Were it not a victim of bad RNG on the shuffler's part, it would be a bit farther ahead. It definitely benefited from a level grind on Black Flame Island (the island to the immediate north of Crescent Island, whose only encounter is 5x Black Flames). It had no problems with Soul Cannon, and Archaeoavis was mostly fine.

Then it got its final job: Ninja. While a good job, it does mean that they need to pick up another Death Sickle. There's just no excuse not to have another in World 2, and then have Berserker dual-wield them. Makes A LOT of fights easier. Still, wouldn't be surprised if they revisit RNG hell to get it. The session ended shortly after confirming the job.

Team Bet: Ranger/Thief/Geomancer/Blue Mage/???
Current Level: 24
Bet's team has, as expected, fallen to last. However, they are surprisingly much closer to the rest of the pack than I predicted. They also have certain advantages. It is still very much a cursed team at the moment on account Ranger being weak for a good chunk of the game, Thief primarily being a support class, and Geomancer being Geomancer. It's not a good team to start with for World 1.

The team struggled massively with Soul Cannon. First attempt at Level 19 ended in a wipe. I went to Black Flame Island (where Aim solved the problem of a physical team facing a creature with actual evasion), and grinded to Level 24. Went back, wiped again because I forgot that Soul Cannon blocks Wind elemental, rendering Gaia useless. After moving around abilities, third time I finally defeated Soul Cannon, lucking out with the Launchers only targeting one team member (one of the big problems with this fight: The Launcher missiles cause Old, which continually drops your level and stats until you reach 1 or die, whichever comes first). This was despite Animals, the only healing ability the team has on hand (via Nightingale), healing only once due to some really bad RNG (every single roll except that one was Squirrel, the lowest possible RNG roll you can get with that, and technically Nightingale at this level is the most likely ability you'll pick up). Only by virtue of having steal-grinded for Hi Potions on Fire Powered Ship was the team able to survive the attrition battle.

Archaeoaevis was better, since most of the fight could leverage Gaia, particularly Wind Slash and Sonic Boom. The final phase was a bit frustrating, but there were no wipes. This revealed the fourth, but not final job: Blue Mage. Now they have to hunt down quite a few Blue Magic spells to get through 2/3rds of World 2...only to stop using them after the Crystal bosses in the Great Forest of Moore. Why? Fifth Job Modifier! After that fight and the subsequent cutscene battle, Blue Mage is locked, and Team Bet cannot use any of the job's abilities. Instead, we can only hope Gilgabot replaces it with a better job for the latter 40% of the game.

At the very least, Ranger will come to its own mid-game once Rapid Fire is available, not to mention that Thief offers a shot at an early Hayate Bow, which makes it more powerful (especially because Hayate Bow has a 25% chance to proc Rapid Fire on Attack). Plus, because the number of Blue Magic spells the team can learn at this juncture is small, it will likely surpass Team Dalet unless the latter gets miracle luck again on Death Sickle. (Plus Level 5 Death (+Dark Spark) and Death Claw solves MOST of the boss fights up to the Crystals). Still, this team is highly cursed. It is neck and neck with Team Dalet, with the session stopping shortly after the job was revealed.

We are 28 hours into this Cursed Fiesta, and about...33% done? Hard to say. Fifth Job adds a unique dynamic to the situation.

Outlook:

• Team Alef has money issues to deal with, but after that it has a decent time going through World 2. Fabulous Prizes will enable optimal use of Zeninage in several key fights, and depending on how much AP grinding is done at Castle Bal, Iainuki might also enter the picture. Endgame, this team is built for maximizing damage: Dual Wield, Flare and Holy Blade late game, Zeninage, Iainuki, Throwing some weapons. Break Blade solves Almagest on NED, so they do not have to worry about raising their HP to best it. It will have to go to Fork Tower, but it's not a big deal. The big RNG obstacle will likely be Barrier Tower, as they will need Reflect Rings, especially as they lack a healer.
  
  Final team builds: Dual Wield on Knight and Mystic Knight (Dual Enhancers on Mystic Knight, Excalibur and Defender/Ragnarok on Knight), Spellblade on Ninja, Iainuki and Dual Wield (Masamune/Murakumo) on Samurai.
• Team Gimel has probably the easiest going in World 2, especially as they are the only team with a specialized healer. Endgame is also strong: Holy, Finisher, Zeninage, Iainuki. Fork Tower will be more complicated because of the lack of an offensive magic user, but it's no real trouble. White Mage mitigates the need for Reflect Rings, so they can skip that grind (though if it gets really far ahead I might do it anyway for funsies). It also mitigates the need for a high health at NED, because Shell halves the damage of Almagest. Its main concern may be the Crystals, but it's an easily passable situation once they get Fabulous Prizes.
  
  Final team builds: White Mage has Zeninage, THINKZERKER (White Mage Mastery to maximize output of Rune Axe), Samurai with Finisher, Gladiator with Zeninage and maybe Iainuki.
• Team Dalet, once they get their second Death Sickle, have an interesting time in World 2. The Death Sickles will deal with a couple fights, though not all. Rod breaking helps in others until Moore. There is a definite glass cannon quality to this team, since the only heals available outside items is...Healing Staff and Regen. They have the longest road ahead of all the teams as well: Along with Fork Tower, they have to finish Undersea Trench for Meteor (which isn't too bad since Time Mage means they have Float), and the end game setup kind of requires building up health through level grinding (though I have managed to land Break on the Almagest part with a Black Mage once).
  
  Final team builds: Black Mage has Time Magic Level 6, DUALZERKER (Dual Wield Titan Axes), Time Mage has Black Magic Level 6, Ninja has Time Magic Level 6 for Quick.
• With Team Bet, all bets are off. World 2 is held together by Blue Magic shenanigans (most bosses either get wrecked by Death Claw or by Mathing it to make Level 5 Death work. But this has been a highly cursed team, and they remain the weakest of the four. A lot of what happens after Crystal Guardians is highly dependent on the Fifth Job. With that said, one solace they do have is, at the moment, they do not need to go to Fork Tower and beyond, so they have the shortest road ahead.

A lot to go through. My goal this week is to at least get Teams Dalet and Bet into World 2.

Fun Shuffler Moment: Bet and Dalet were so neck-and-neck at one point, the shuffler made a perfectly aligned/timed swap so that Bet's cutscene of Galuf and Krile leaving World 1 immediately continued in Dalet's game without a break or repeat in dialogue

[Ashan]

22 hours into The Surge now, I think possibly at the final boss when I left off last night?

I eventually got into the swing of things and have been enjoying it much more than when I made my last post. The game started feeling better when I switched from using some weapon that was basically a chainsaw (the closest thing I could find to a 1-handed sword) to a weapon class the game calls "twin rigs" which are 2 arm attachments you punch enemies with. Mainly cause they're way faster and work well for my playstyle.

Further observations:

• I like the individual maps themselves (or at least some of them). They didn't do the Dark Souls 2/3 thing of having linear levels with bonfires ops stations every 50 meters, and instead every major area has a single ops station and as you progress through the level, you unlock shortcuts back to it so it's reused for the entire time you're in that area. That said, some areas feel very same-ey to other areas. And some levels I just never really learned the layout of because there's so many generic rooms connected by maintenance shafts (which all use the exact same assets throughout the entire game)
• On the topic of ops stations, they don't quite capture one subtle but important aspect that bonfires did, which is standing out and being noticeable from a distance. The bonfires are a safe spot you want to get to. In Dark Souls when you see a bonfire you'd feel a sense of relief. But the ops stations in this game are straight up hard to see because they're essentially a plain grey door that opens up once you get close. They're very hard to spot amongst the rest of the plain grey colors and metallic textures in the game, and I never quite felt the same hit of excitement seeing one as I did with bonfires/lanterns/etc from other Soulslike games.
• While the individual maps are good, the game could use some sort of fast travel system. As I mentioned, it's really hard to learn your way around these maps, and trying to backtrack or go between areas just seems impossible sometimes. I pretty much did zero backtracking at all because I knew I'd just get lost and stumble through levels being chased by enemies for 30 minutes before finding my way back to where I was.
• The story still hasn't really grabbed me, it's a pretty vanilla "big science corporation with sunshine-and-roses PR has dark secrets and is the downfall of humanity" story. A la Cyberdyne, Vault-Tec, Aperture Science, Weyland Corp, Umbrella Corp, LexCorp, etc.
• The DLC was a lot of fun (I didn't know it was DLC until after I finished it but I had a hunch from how much it stood out from everything else in the game). It felt like one of those instances where the developers were able to go nuts and just do some fun stuff because the game was already out and selling. It's a real breath of fresh air from running around in a science lab.

update edit: Finished the game. Final boss gave me a bunch of trouble so I maxed out the upgrades on my weapon and came into the fight with a shit ton of healing. Did the trick

[thatguyif]

At 31 hours and 33 minutes, and 690 swaps, all four teams in the Cursed Fiesta have finally left World 1 of FFV. Huzzah! Progress report:

• Team Gimel, once dead last, is now in the lead, though neck and neck with Team Alef. First passing them at Regole, shuffler RNG made them swap places with Team Alef, It made quick work of Dragon Pod at Drakenvale thanks to a timely Elemental Attack. It is now re-entering Gil Turtle cave for more Fabulous Prizes before it returns to Bal for The Grind™. Current Level: 22.
• Team Alef is not too far behind. Eventually escape the Regole Hell Grind, they eventually caught to Team Gimel. It has done its run for Fabulous Prizes for now, and is also now about to enter The Grind™ as well. Current Level: 27.
• Team Dalet, while a bit behind, is not that far back. First off, they got MIRACLE LUCK again when they got their second Death Sickle in just two battles. They stumbled a bit with the meteorite bosses of World 1, but they recovered. Greg was a bit of a push, but nothing serious. They are now currently approaching the Moogle Village. Current Level: 24.
• Team Bet has fallen to dead last with little hope of recovery. The team's late World 1 composition required a hunt for various Blue Magic spells, as well as grinding to Level 25 to get Level 5 Death. That didn't stop them from wiping multiple times on the meteorite bosses, though. While things will get better for them in World 2, it won't be that much. Session ended right at the cutscene leaving World 1. Current Level: 25.

We're now entering the point of the game that I call The Grind™. In the basement of Castle Bal, there's a space where random encounters occur of a monster called Objet d'Art. They come in groups of 2 or 5. These creatures drop 4 or 8 ABP, respectively, making it one of the few pre-endgame spots to grind for ABP and master jobs. While in theory I could advance my way through the mid-game from this point forward, having mastery for at least one job with each character can be extremely helpful. Certain jobs have very powerful abilities that unlock with mastery, and even without specific abilities, some have potent stat boosts that transfer well to other characters (particularly with the mages). Getting at least some of the grind done will make things a lot easier.

Of course, the main issue is the Objet d'Art. At 3300 HP, it's meant to be a late-game enemy (especially given what the real treasure of the basement is:

Odin

, accessible only in

World 3

). While weak to lightning, you need Thundaga to one-shot a single target, two rounds to clear a group (Thundaga Blade instakills, but requires a turn to setup). That said, it has two big weaknesses: Level 5 Death and Gold Needle. The former method allows a fast ABP grind, the latter a more tedious grind. As a result, to break up the monotony, I typically won't do full grinds here. But still, it's a grind.

Plans for The Grind™:

• Team Gimel will go into this with a focus on mastering White Mage, with Samurai or Gladiator as a bonus in the first round. Getting two characters with White Mage Mastery is a start. After going through mid-game, a second round will occur to see if someone can finish up Samurai. Samurai has the highest ABP to mastery, in part because Equip Katanas and Iainuki take over 700 ABP combined. Third round will get another Samurai mastered, especially because Iainuki is extremely powerful if I need to level grind.
• Team Alef will go into this on just mastering their current Jobs at the moment. After the first round is complete, go through another round in the mid-game to get a second job completed. May do a third round to get a third job completed, but Samurai is, again, a long grind.
• When Team Dalet gets to Castle Bal, they will immediately begin grinding for ABP, primarily to get Galuf mastered in Ninja, and cease afterward. The reason for this this is simple: Dual Wield. For this team, a DOUBLEZERKER (dual-wielding Berserker) will be powerful, especially with two Death Sickles on hand. It should simplify a few boss fights mid game for the simple reason that quite a bosses aren't heavy. After Barrier Tower, a more serious grind will occur, especially now that the Sub grant access to Moore and the Level 5 spells (namely, Hastega and the -agas). Aiming for Mage mastery there.
• Whenever Team Bet gets to Castle Bal, it will do the vast majority of its ABP grinding right there, especially for Ranger. The reason is two-fold: Blue Mage has Level 5 Death, which allows the fast grind. More importantly, though, because Blue Mage will disappear after Great Forest of Moore, it has to be done sooner rather than later.

Story progress will slow while The Grind™ occurs.

[Ashan]

After finishing up with The Surge I hopped right into The Surge 2. Even though the first game didn't immediately gel with me, by the end I was really enjoying it. It's a nice, polished experience, and what it does, it does pretty well.

First impressions of The Surge 2 were... not great. The first thing that really hit me was how glaringly worse the game looks visually. I thought maybe it was just that I wasn't used to the new look, but no. It's really just worse looking. The character models, lighting (which has an insane, blinding bloom in some areas that occasionally makes it hard to see the ground you're walking on), etc all looked worse. Even the menus look far more amateurish which is really disappointing cause they were VERY pretty in the first game. The colours just feel more washed out, the resolution on some stuff looks worse, and the whole game is just completely washed out in its colors. In fact, the game occasionally reuses assets from the first game (which I suppose works in the context of the story, though can feel a bit forced) and it usually looks oddly out of place because it's way better quality. Especially when you see the reused prerendered Don Hackett clips that look way nicer than the videos in this game (and not just because in the lore the production value would be worse)

The game also has some pretty horrible performance problems, at least on PC and I had to crank the settings way the hell down to make it run at a tolerable framerate (which still isn't great). It's a bit weird how the game can look AND perform so much worse. But that may also tie into something that I haven't mentioned yet (and didn't know going in), which is that this game is essentially a form of open-world. I guess that depends on your definition of open-world, because it's definitely not anything like Skyrim or Witcher 3, but it's definitely a lot more open than the first game, with a lot more ways to traverse around. And because you do a lot of backtracking to the same areas, you learn your way around pretty well (at least in what I've played so far), which is a big change from the first game where I could never really grasp the maps very well.

Combat also had some surprising overhauls. On the surface it seems very similar, but they changed some things that really changes the way you play. Energy built up as you fight enemies now goes towards filling up batteries, and a battery charge can be used to either cut a limb, or refill an injectable (which in my play style is just heals). It adds a bit more decision making in that, depending on your health situation, you can choose to either sacrifice a battery charge for a heal, or get a quicker kill and potentially chop a limb and get the items/schematics that might give you. They also got rid of the weird jump you can do with the right stick (that I never used because I don't know what it's for) and instead you can do directional parrying now, which is an entirely new way of fighting, though I still haven't really gotten the hang of it. I feel like there may have also been tweaks regarding enemy health and criteria for cutting a limb, but I still haven't entirely figured out the minutia of how it worked in each game. Regardless, I had a bit of trouble at first because I was expecting it to work exactly like the first game, and it made things a bit difficult. And I wasn't liking the changes at first, but now I'm coming around to appreciate the changes for the new layers of strategy they add. The updated energy system also makes it so you can go on longer journeys away from the med stations since there's a way of refilling heals, and it encourages a more aggressive fighting style, similar to the rally system in Bloodborne.

Anyway, I'm gonna have to do some more playing before I can really say my opinion, but I'm not hating it. The open world stuff is perhaps a bit overwhelming, but I'm making do. Currently 7 hours in, and have completed the first real level of the game

(killing the 2 brothers in the drug cult)

. I'm interested to see how it will continue going!

[thatguyif]

So, as you may have noticed, my timer said 31 hours, 33 minutes in the previous post. It's now at 40:52. And only three of the four teams are out of The Grind™. With that said...we're very close to 50% of the way through this entire Cursed Fiesta. Progress report:

• Team Gimel has built out a very strong lead. They just barely got out of the intended first grind before Team Alef, then waltzed through the Surgate Fleet Battle. They hit a brick wall of sorts with trying to get the Gold Hairpin in Barrier Tower, where the Red Dragon guarding the chest wiped them twice, and a pair of Yellow Dragons almost did the same. (Gold Hairpin cuts MP cost in half. It's necessary, even with the Magic stat drop.) Still, they're in much better shape for the simple reason that they have a White Mage. We'll get into why momentarily. But right now, they're in Moore picking up the Level 5 White spells and some equipment before heading back on the sub to venture to Ghido's Cave. After Ghido's cave, another grind round may be on the table, but it'll likely be much shorter than the previous grind. Current Level: 25*
• Team Alef is still in second. As noted, they exited their grind just around the same time Team Gimel did. They started lagging a little at the Surgate Fleet Battle, though not seriously. However, the situation changed once they hit Barrier Tower. There, along with every other team except Team Gimel, they must collect Reflect Rings, a rare drop from Reflect Knights. Why is this? Reflect Rings (which have auto-Reflect) help make the final battle of World 2, against

  Exdeath

  , bearable. A team with White Mage can avoid this by virtue of having Reflect as an available spell, so Team Gimel can skip this task. Team Bet has alternative solution as well, which we'll get into when we get there. But Teams Alef and Dalet need to grind here for the rings. Currently, this team has 1 of the four they need. Current Level: 29
• Team Dalet is starting to catch up from their struggles. They completed their prerequisite grind in Bal sometime after Alef's and Gimel's, but have just cleared Drakenvale and on their way back to Bal. With that said, a reassessment is necessary for that team, as the "final build" is essentially done with caveats. Three members have Time Mage mastery, one has Black Mage mastery, one has Ninja mastery and is currently DOUBLEZERKER. If I could get another member to Black Mage mastery, I can have that person become ninja with auxiliary magic ability (swapping Black or Time Magic as needed), and that would be it. So if and when they grind again, it shouldn't take as long. But I dunno when to do it. Maybe after Moore? Still, they face a Reflect Ring grind of their own. Regardless, though, they have the potential to at least surpass Team Alef, especially if MIRACLE LUCK continues in Barrier Tower when they get there. Current Level: 26
• Team Bet, which had entered World 2 last, is still struggling. Still, having a Blue Mage means they are blazing through their version of The Grind™, which is where they're at right now. The goal is to master three of the four jobs, with Ranger being the one with the most ABP to clear. Right now, three of the four characters have mastered this job. The fourth (Faris) has two levels to clear, but it's very doable. Then...it should be a clear run through to Moore. Unlike Alef and Dalet's Teams, Bet's team can wait until Exdeath's Castle to get its Reflect Rings, since they can steal them off Reflect Mages (it's a rare steal, but steal grinds are much less tedious than item drop grinds). Current Level: 26

*Note: Previous posts, I overreported Team Gimel's levels. They were much lower (level 22) than they were reported to be. I've updated the level notes to reflect this.

No serious goals this week. I'm not going to play this tonight (or if I do, it's going to be a very short session), and my next serious session is not going to be until at least Thursday, as I got things to do this week. If things keep moving the way they are, I should hopefully have at least one team in World 3 by some point next week.

[KobaBeach]

Vay - Past the Cave of Fire/Firelake, defeated Ignis/Igneus,

Lei-Fang/Rachel left the party to stay in Balsse/Treefall since her job to save the village was already done

, went to Erl/Marl in Rodesia/Marwick, talked to the mayor who asked us to find Otto, got lost, went to Clair/Penzance, went to the Kliff Stronghold/Redcliff, fucked around and found out, discovered I had to go to the Shrine of Ledin/Toth to the east of Erl/Marl, found Otto, used Past Vision magic, discovered

Elin aka Elunthia/Elynthia is Ledin, the Eternal Lady, and the mage of the Soul Orb, who sealed the Orb inside herself and Sadoul, real name Sadorrer attacked her before she escaped to Hynelore

, went through the underground dungeon and recovered the Legendary Armor of Vay and now I'm at Rodesia Castle/Marwick Castle to recover the Soul Orb. The game's names are all so terrible.

Talk to the Priestess and she will tell Sandor of a Hidden Labyrinth below the temple. Search the Statue inside and talk to Otto and he will join. Look at the statue again and after a funny segment, the statue will move and reveal the stairway.

There was no joke in the original Japanese text, from what I could tell (i kind of glazed over it). frighten

[AtypicalAbbie]

I play a bunch of games at once, cause my mind wanders, so I am playing currently playing Mother 3, Dante's Inferno, The Spectrum Retreat, Panzer Paladin and The Wild At Heart.

[KobaBeach]

I play a bunch of games at once, cause my mind wanders, so I am playing currently playing Mother 3

fucc. i need to play mother 3 real bad

i haven't been that big of an earthbound fan since like 2008 though, long before i actually played the game because i was lazy and the only rpgs that i could pay attention to at the time were pokemon. but i do actually like eb/m2 a bit.

beginnings/m1 is another subject, but i also don't dislike it either. duncan's factory is basically phantasy star 2 levels of bad dungeon design

[AtypicalAbbie]

I play a bunch of games at once, cause my mind wanders, so I am playing currently playing Mother 3

fucc. i need to play mother 3 real bad

i haven't been that big of an earthbound fan since like 2008 though, long before i actually played the game because i was lazy and the only rpgs that i could pay attention to at the time were pokemon. but i do actually like eb/m2 a bit.

beginnings/m1 is another subject, but i also don't dislike it either. duncan's factory is basically phantasy star 2 levels of bad dungeon design

Never played Beginnings, dunno if it would really hold up.

[BobisOnlyBob]

I honestly think Mother 1 has a better story than Earthbound, but pretty bad level design and an awful encounter rate. I would never have finished it without turbo/throttle, but I'm glad I did.

[AtypicalAbbie]

I honestly think Mother 1 has a better story than Earthbound, but pretty bad level design and an awful encounter rate. I would never have finished it without turbo/throttle, but I'm glad I did.

Maybe one day, but so far, Mother 3 isn't as engaging as Earthbound was for me.

[HatKid]

I finished Yakuza 4 the other day, and enjoyed it, but it isn't the greatest. The villain is underwhelming and sort of just comes out of nowhere and do anything besides be evil just because. It was also annoying losing all my abilities, items, and money after every part. The game also likes to make you fight difficult fights before you have a chance to buy armor and items. I liked each protagonist though, it's sad that Tanimura hasn't returned at all since Yakuza 4. Since he was recast (the story of why is really unfortunate) in the Remaster, there's a chance, but who knows. Anyway, there was one boss fight in the finale I had heard about that was really annoying, but it was no problem at all. Funny how people's experiences differ. At least from here on out Yakuza games go up in quality! So I figured after I finished Yakuza 4 I'd...

Play Code Vein. Souls-likes are not for me but this one seemed interesting enough so I thought I'd give it a shot. Even if this one is supposed to be on the easy end of those types of games, that's fine with me lol. I've only been playing for a little while but I'm already running into some of the problems people have with the game, like the "plot corridors" of walking down a hallway while people are talking/giving backstory. Plus I just suck at the game so it's been slow. Regardless, I couldn't help myself and started...

Yakuza 5. Already I can tell this is a massive improvement over Yakuza 4. It's also interesting to see the last game before the Yakuza 0 engine. I can see how it evolved into that. And in true Yakuza fashion I got distracted playing games at Club SEGA instead of advancing the plot. I am very interested in seeing why Kiryu is doing what he is in this game.

[AtypicalAbbie]

Play Code Vein. Souls-likes are not for me but this one seemed interesting enough so I thought I'd give it a shot. Even if this one is supposed to be on the easy end of those types of games, that's fine with me lol. I've only been playing for a little while but I'm already running into some of the problems people have with the game, like the "plot corridors" of walking down a hallway while people are talking/giving backstory. Plus I just suck at the game so it's been slow. Regardless, I couldn't help myself and started...

Oh Code Vein, I played that on my YouTube channel, don't watch, it was a mess and a half, but it was a fun time for the most part, and yeah, the story is not what I found enjoyable, but if you like Souls-like games, it's worth getting to the end, I think.

[raekuul]

I'm... stuck on a highroad somewhere in Final Fantasy X HD Remaster. I've got six characters and just uncorked Extract Ability. This game is legit good (I thought I was going to hate the sphere grid based on how I dislike FFXIITZA's class-restricted License Board but it's actually pretty neat since the Sphere Grid leads me to build a certain way while still giving me the option to cross-pollinate) and of all things I love the fact that it's properly turn-based. Blitzball was hard to wrap my head around until it clicked, though admittedly I've only played against the Luca Goers so far.

I beat MMBN2 (vanilla and randomized). At some point I want to go back and win the Green Star for the first time ever, but I'll still need to complete the SS and SSS License exams and that's not a pleasant thought. Plus I'll have to go back and farm chip drops, which MMBN2 doesn't have a way to force chip drops like later games have and some of the chips I will need for the WWW Area are 50% drops even at S-Rank.

Currently, also playing randomized MMBN3B and vanilla MMBN1. I had meant to pick up MMBN5 with Roahm's LP, but I think I still would rather play 2 and 3 over 5. (Amusingly, I found my physical carts for 2 and 3 Blue a few minutes ago. They presumably still work, but I haven't had a device that can play them in about ten years now)

FFTA is currently stuck at the Viera Totema missions. Combination of "I'm underleveled" (which mattereth not when Marche has this game's MP Shield) and "I'm tied up in other games."

I've also been chipping away at Jupiter Hell.

[KobaBeach]

Blitzball was hard to wrap my head around until it clicked,

i will never understand blitzball and i feel fine

[Ashan]

Finished off The Surge 2

I might need to let it stew, and even do another playthrough of each of the games to get a better grasp of how I feel about each game but I think I was enjoying The Surge 2 more by the end. It REALLY turned itself around for me compared to my thoughts when I started. The issues I had are still relevant. It's undoubtedly not as pretty of a game. NPCs were clearly made in some kind of fairly basic character creator, and are probably using stock animations from an animation pack because they literally looked like Second Life (ESPECIALLY the nightclub area which I could not help but think of Club Esteban every time I walked in there and saw the awkward NPC dances). Menus and HUDs didn't look nearly as nice. Voice acting wasn't as good. The list goes on.

But from a gameplay standpoint I think it was a lot more fun. Not as tight of an experience; they were able to do that in the first game by keeping the world relatively small and same-ey looking throughout the game. But I enjoyed the big, interconnected world that rewarded you for exploration and paying attention to your direction with shortcuts to get around the world.

Though, it was a bit frustrating near the end of the game where the "world changing event happens" and they block off a bunch of the paths around the world you've previously learned.

I had quite a bit of trouble with boss fights until I figured out that the trick is to learn the directional parrying system. This was mostly unnecessary for the regular enemy fighting and exploring, where I played it in pretty typical Soulslike fashion, dodging around swiftly. But for bosses it was much more difficult to play that way, so I made use of the fact that you can save 3 equipment loadouts in the game to quickly switch between in the menu. I'd have one loadout for regular exploration that would be equipped most of the time. Stuff that would help me go between long stretches between med stations, primarily by equipping chips that gave perks for performing finishing moves. Then I had a bossfight loadout that included the chip that shows you which direction to parry, as well as a bunch of chips that rewarded you for parrying correctly with increased defenses and attack power. Once I figured out this trick, bosses became much easier. Enough to keep me engaged and on my toes, but I was taking a lot of them out in one shot (inlcuding the final boss)

Also I made sure to swing by the DLC before finishing off the game, and just like the first one, they went with a weird/wacky concept with a more lighthearted tone than the rest of the game. And once again I enjoyed the DLC a lot! It involves climbing onto an aircraft carrier that had been converted into a floating town made to look like you're walking around in the 50's suburbs. And I guess it was assisted by a giant AI octopus looking thing that had turned on them and started destroying everything in sight. And there's some other even weirder turns with what was going on on the ship that you can find out if you dig a little deeper. I thought it was great! Only took me about 2 hours to complete from start to finish, but that's probably more quickly I was moving through this one. Possibly in part cause I had gotten better at the game, and perhaps the game was just a bit easier than the first one.

Anyway there's some word vomit after having just finished the game. I also like that it showed you a bunch of your play stats after the credits, including how long areas and bosses took you, how many deaths, etc. and how you compared to other players. My total playtime was 25:40:56 with 53 deaths.

And some other miscellaneous stats from the first screen of them:

[KobaBeach]

Started Metroid II: Return of Samus yesterday morning. I appreciate the more linear structure but I still got lost. Using a Map, I have 33 Metroids left (6 defeated), got the Bomb, Ice Beam and Spider Ball, one Energy Tank and six Missile Pods.

engage ridley
mother fucker

Details:

Map from here, by Devin Monnens.

[raekuul]

Aye, Return of Samus' main weakness is everything looks the [REDACTED] same. It's real easy to get lost, even when you (think you) know the layout.

[KobaBeach]

Aye, Return of Samus' main weakness is everything looks the [REDACTED] same. It's real easy to get lost, even when you (think you) know the layout.

Let's not lie, Metroid 1 also has that problem, even if I do like both games haha.

It's an issue of early map-less metroidvanias/exploratory platformers/SEARCH ACTION games. Cave Story had extremely varied and somewhat linear areas to better fit its design. Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II (an Action RPG) also had small hub areas for the 2D sidescrolling segments, and it was still really easy to get lost due to how winding and similar the paths are.

CS is a game I need to beat, not any of the Nicalis versions ofc. Gave up my first run of the freeware version back in like 2009, once I realized I fucked my run by talking to Professor Booster in that one spot, thus

accidentally killing him

.

[raekuul]

True

And don't feel bad about your first CS run, basically everybody does that - the required jump to not do that is actually pretty tricky and requires a degree of confidence to pull off, and

it's basic human nature to be concerned about named NPCs falling into holes right in front of you - ignoring Professor Booster is a violation of common decency, even though ignoring him leads to his survival.