Games General

[Nichi]

@Kriz: One of my friends got invited to ESO...and then his laptop died on him before he could install it

@Stew: Cool. Never actually played Crazy Taxi, even though everybody says it's one of the best Dreamcast games -w-;

[stewartsage]

It's one of the best arcade games ever.

[Nichi]

Mmm :3

So, I beat FF6 before I left for work; making it the 2nd FF game I've beaten and the 1st I didn't find myself painted into a corner where I absolutely had to use Gameshark or start over from the beginning -w-;

Final Fantasy VI: ShowHide

After spending the past several months training my characters, because of falling face-first into a beginner's trap: you really need to keep all of your characters well equipped and it also helps to have them know a large variety of magic to help survive Kefka's Tower. I didn't do this, unfortunately; I had my party set in stone for the final battle, and didn't realize I was going to need everyone. With that out of the way, I attempted to obtain more Ribbons, but after struggling to find the one enemy that has it, and then having said enemy rip me a new one while I try futility to steal from it, I finally reached the most glorious point of "fuck this; I'm charging into Kefka's tower now".

Although I had to micromanage 3 parties as I made my way through, it wasn't quite as tedious as the Phoenix Cave earlier in the game, and I never quite felt like I was completely screwed like in the Northern Cave in FF7 (Thanks in part to the save point glitch, which comes into play when controlling multiple parties; allowing me to save or use a tent anywhere with my other groups, so long as one of them stays on a save point. As a result, I could always keep my party well healed). Once I made it through and beat the first set of bosses (Including the Guardian; which was so satisfying being able to kick its ass after having to run in fear of it earlier in the game because it was too powerful), I reached Kefka himself. After the speech delivered by him, followed by the speech delivered by everyone in my parties, I set the queue for my characters and engaged him in battle.

First off, I must say that Laughing Mad is a fantastic final boss theme; the fact it changes the further you progress into the fight makes it that much better. Also, the setup with you slowly working your way up from a base with a lot of heads on up to Kefka himself reminds me of the second fight with Gideon Graves in the Scott Pilgrim game; which was an obvious homage to Final Fantasy.

As for how the fight went down, my initial party was Penti (Terra), Vester (Mog), Kari (Relm), and Clone (Sabin). Clone was the only one I wasn't doing much magic with; I had him setup as a berzerker, where I simply selected the Attack option in the menu and he'd attack every single on-screen enemy multiple times in a single turn. Penti and Kari focused on dishing out Ultima over and over, while Vester primarily focused on healing everyone. I made it through the first 2 tiers easily, but unfortunately, the 3rd took out Penti and Clone as it was defeated; resulting in Bella (Celes) and Stew (Locke) having to jump in to aid Kari and Vester in taking on the final tier of the battle (That being Kefka himself).

Stew was setup about as usual (Nothing really special with his equipment, beyond really good armor), while I made one unique change to Bella's equipment; giving her an item that allows her to double-cast magic in a single turn. This proved to be invaluable; as I could have her heal the group when needed while still attacking, and double-tap with Ultima the rest of the time. Surprisingly, the fight didn't feel near as long as Sephiroth; maybe that's partially due to the noticible lack of a special attack that plays an unskippable 3-minute long animation every single time its used. In fact, I only saw him use Forsaken, his equivalent to Sephiroth's Supernova, once in the entire battle. Once I got in the final blow and he began to dissolve, I felt satisfied.

The ending was nice, although long; it ran for a good 30 minutes as it tied off several loose ends. It was a very satisfying ending; one that you can look at and not think "what this really needs is a sequel movie, that makes little sense with what's established in the original game, has multiple instances of character derailment, and is only worth watching for a really over-the-top fight scene right at the end".

In closing, great game; highly recommend it.

Next up, I might setup my PS2 again and attempt to finish .hack...after I test the copy of Mischief Makers that just came in

[stewartsage]

Update: Still never played a Final Fantasy game and no one can make me.

[Nichi]

Technically, everybody has played FF13. If you've watched a movie, you've played FF13; there's little difference -w-;

[Chocofreak13]

I had a funny quip, but I forgot it. -w-;;

EDIT: booted up my wii this morning. tried connecting it to the internet but I kept getting error codes (52130, specifically). google turned up a few topics on other sites regarding the problem, and after trying several (such as manually putting in the ip, etc etc), I have come to the conclusion that  because the only one left is resetting the router, i'll never be able to connect the Wii to the internet. well, there goes most of the fun of it. >>;

[Nichi]

So, diving back into .hack//Quarantine. This file began in September 2007, and I'll see to it that I finish it within the next few months; finally able to remove it from my backlog -w-;

[Nichi]

Pardon the double post, but since I beat .hack//Quarantine, a rundown on my thoughts on the original 4 games:

The original .hack games: ShowHide

After finishing Stretch Panic, Final Fantasy VI, Bomberman Hero, and Mystical Ninja in rapid succession, I finally turned my attention toward something I had been running away from for the past few years, because I had become so burned out with all the level grinding, but after 2 months of trying to prepare myself for the final battle with Kefka in FF6, I felt a few hours of grinding in .hack was within reason. Therefore, the time had finally come for me to finish .hack//Quarantine, and bring a close to a saga that began 7 years ago.

When I jumped back in, I plowed through some areas I knew I needed to do, when I finally reached the infamous "almost every enemy encounter is a Data Bug" dungeon. With my party (Me, BlackRose, Wiseman) all at level 99, and with Gardenia also at level 99 on standby just in case the plot prevented me from using Wiseman any further, we charged in and surprisingly made it through without issue; the highest my infection rate got was yellow (Then again, there was that one section early in where the gates spawned basic enemies, and another section just before the end where they spawned nothing but treasure). Then came the battle with Cubia; which was a lot longer than I expected, and while I had accidentally spoiled that Kite loses the bracelet at the end of this fight, I didn't know that he destroyed it himself with help from BlackRose.

Then, came the final boss. Truth be told, I thought I had a lot longer to go before this point. So, I stocked up on items, saved my file, and jumped in. I also remember accidentally spoiling this part, but what I read had the events all out of order (Stuff from the ending and post-game listed as happening before this fight, which left me confused and wondering if it was going to be like the rumored "bacon ending" from Diddy Kong Racing). I have to say, the final boss was a bit anticlimactic; it still had a sliver of health left, and I was ready to deliver the finishing blow, when suddenly I'm interrupted by a cut-scene that shows Kite finishing off the boss. The rest of the ending was nice, though; it feeling good to finally finish this game...even if I was denied the honor of delivering the finishing blow by way of cut-scene.

...also, Wiseman should totally star in a spin-off titled Wiseman & the Wavemasters of the Universe -w-;

[Chocofreak13]

he totally should.

now if you feel up to it, IT'S SIDEQUEST TIEMMMM~

[NejinOniwa]

Back to EU4 for a bit, because the new expansion has cool stuff...

Like RANDOM NEW WORLD. Actual exploration and shit, rather than just aiming your bow at stuff you already know where to find. COOL SHIET.

Now I just have to figure out how to get a decent position as any colonizing nation in Ironman mode; my Sweden game is going well enough, but it's hard to focus too much on the overseas part because you FIRST have to conquer Denmark and Norway in order to be able to do anything halfway decent, all the while keeping the Russians off your back and grabbing as much of baltic supremacy as you can.

It's hard times ._.

[Nichi]

@Kari: I might tackle a few sidequests later, while I try to figure out what game I want to go after next -w-

[Chocofreak13]

@nej: I BEELEEVE IN  YOOOU
@pent: BATTLESHIP: THE QUEST FOR TRUTH FOR SEGATARI'S XBONE64 IS WHAT YOU SHOULD PLAY NEXT

[Nichi]

But I don't has a Segatari Xbone64. I want it for the Sonytendo Amiga

[Chocofreak13]

I'M AFRAID YOU'LL HAVE TO SETTLE FOR THIS COPY OF BATTLESHIP: THE EXPLODY THING FOR YOUR OLD GAMEDOS PLAYERSTYLE THEN

[SoldierSpence]

In other news...
1. I got the PS3 version of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend over the summer, and got the Platinum Trophy. Getting the title of Abysmal Shopaholic was completely worth it.
2. I got the Ratchet & Clank HD Collection and 100% it. Up Your Arsenal was fun! Best of the trilogy, including the main antagonist.