What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[null1024]

KOF98 [Neo-Geo/MAME]

Give the basketball dude a try. He can spam basketballs, use his dash to move across the screen, has a ridiculously long jumping kick and sweep, and his special move is a great anti-air. People would rage when I used him in the arcades.

Ah man, Lucky is so much fun. That dash [best in the game]. That fucking spinning wheel kick [and man, it's such a cool looking move too, has a style you'd expect from one of SNK's final bosses]. IT'S RAINING BALLS.

extra points if you pick the color where the balls are silver so it's like he's hitting you with STEEL BALLS

Really, the whole sports team is tons of fun.

[broken harbour]

I think I hit the wall in Tales of Symphonia, at the water seal boss at least. 10 f**king attempts and I'm not even close. The fight is total bulls**t, plus, because I don't have a way to generate a save point in the dungeon, I have to complete the dungeon puzzle each time. It feel just like the f**king water temple in OOT. That same sense of frustrating tedium. F**k this game.

F**k, japanese devolopers: People hate this kind of s**t.

[null1024]

Yatagarasu 4.1 [PC].
yes, I know 4.2 exists, I just don't have it

I'm pretty sure that Kou's QCB+K in this version is unsafe on hit, so there's no reason to play him over Crow.
can't wait until the Steam version, which probably won't have dumb shit like that, but until then...

Hanzo's sprite is absolutely hilarious. It's as if her boobs are inflating and deflating.

I don't have a way to generate a save point in the dungeon, I have to complete the dungeon puzzle each time.

That's really odd. Damn near every boss in a Tales game that I've played [haven't gone through Symphonia] has a save point right before them.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I think I hit the wall in Tales of Symphonia, at the water seal boss at least. 10 f**king attempts and I'm not even close. The fight is total bulls**t

You mean Adulocia? 3 v 4 fights are tougher, but I wouldn't say it's unfair or anything. Have you tried altering your strategy between attempts? Are there some AI strategy tweaks you could be making to help you? Also, who are you controlling in battle? I strongly, strongly recommend Colette for this. Para Ball is arguably the best tech in the game since it is insanely efficient as far as damage to TP is concerned, and it's fantastic at interrupting spellcasters. Colette is also rather bad under CPU AI, whereas Lloyd and Kratos can handle things decent enough in melee for you to take advantage of Colette's boss crushing moveset.

Oh, and another reason Para Ball rocks? It's lightning element, one of the better general purpose elements (few things resist/absorb it), and guess who just happens to be vulnerable to lightning? If you don't have Para Ball, switch her to S type, forget Pow Pow Hammer, and have her learn it. Colette is on the slow side, her HP and defense are below average, and her computer AI isn't good with her. But she's got some of the most powerful techs in the game, so used properly she can mow down bosses.

Also, don't use Genis & Raine together. It's strongly discouraged due to how spell queueing works (only one mid/high tier spell can be onscreen for the party & enemy at a time, if one is animating and someone's spell is ready to cast, they can't use it until their side's current animating spell ends) though this isn't as much of an issue early game when they both only have low-tier techs like First-Aid, Fireball, etc. This was in ToD2 as well, but wasn't nearly as big an issue due to faster cast animations and spell speeds.

Wish the game came with a manual that explains more of the game mechanics, does the game introduce them gradually over the first dozen hours or so?

Most of the basics the game shows you, but the fun is experimenting and learning some of the more esoteric stuff. Like specific EX gem setups that work well, or choosing T/S techs in cases where you have a choice of variants. There's also wacky stuff to discover like spell cancel combos, alternate elemental spells, messing with equipment setups to absorb/nullify lots of elements (Presea can do this wonderfully with the right gear). Symphonia's combat isn't too crazy complicated, and learning what attacks to block or jump over or run from helps a lot. Or what you can't avoid and need to use Guardian against (Dark Sphere & Photon are really cheap and undodgeable).

Because of T/S tech selection you might want to consult a recommended guide for choice on which moves to go for. Won't matter much if it's your first time playing on Normal, but some versions are plainly better than others, whereas others have more specific, limited uses like Hammer Rain which is stupid powerful, but only works well on large enemies. Colette's Para Ball is awesome, but Torrential Para Ball is awful due to how bad the damage is for TP cost (I still prefer going S type for Para Ball, which is much more versatile and spammable than Hammer Rain).

[broken harbour]

Yatagarasu 4.1 [PC].

That's really odd. Damn near every boss in a Tales game that I've played [haven't gone through Symphonia] has a save point right before them.

Well there's a memory seal, but I don't have a gem to activate it, don't know where it is.

You mean Adulocia?

Yes, I've been varying my strategy each time, but Adulocia KO's a party member every 3 seconds and I use up my 7 life bottles within a minute.

Para Ball is arguably the best tech in the game since it is insanely efficient as far as damage to TP is concerned, and it's fantastic at interrupting spellcasters. Colette is also rather bad under CPU AI, whereas Lloyd and Kratos can handle things decent enough in melee for you to take advantage of Colette's boss crushing moveset.

Oh, and another reason Para Ball rocks? It's lightning element, one of the better general purpose elements (few things resist/absorb it), and guess who just happens to be vulnerable to lightning?

Hmmm, don't have para ball yet, haven't acquired that skill. Also, in what universe is water weak against lightning? Nowhere in the game are the elements strengths/weaknesses explained AT ALL from what I can tell. Neither is the spell queuing that you just explained.

Perhaps another reason is that I'm at level 12, googling tells me to be at level 18 for this fight but how? It'd be a good 6 hours of idiotic grinding at 25exp per battle out in the field map. This is my first experience in the series, are all Tales games like this?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Hmmm, don't have para ball yet, haven't acquired that skill. Also, in what universe is water weak against lightning? Nowhere in the game are the elements strengths/weaknesses explained AT ALL from what I can tell.

The general assumption is that you'll use a Magic Lens on any new enemies you encounter. Remember that it displays not only their HP and other stats, but elemental affinities as well. Enemies can either Resist (half damage), be immune (no damage) or absorb (heal from). Pay attention to what your characters say in battle: everyone has specific quotes for when they hit an enemy with an element the enemy is weak to ("Yay, I found a weakness!") as well as one for when they use an attack with an element that works poorly ("It's not effective!"). This is mainly a reminder in case you go into a boss fight and forget to tweak which moves are enabled for AI controlled characters and Genis starts using water spells on the water boss or something.

Strategy settings are also something you'll want to play around with a lot. It's no good having the AI save 25% TP during a boss fight when they should be using it all!

Perhaps another reason is that I'm at level 12, googling tells me to be at level 18 for this fight but how? It'd be a good 6 hours of idiotic grinding at 25exp per battle out in the field map. This is my first experience in the series, are all Tales games like this?

Have you been running from fights a lot? Or has your team been dead in a lot of fights? There's a point early in the game where you can choose between an easy path or a harder path where you fight tougher bosses earlier than you normally would, but it sounds like you're doing the "easier" route (the hard path requires taking a really obtuse roundabout path and ignoring an obvious town from what I remember), so I imagine you're just underlevelled due to running a lot? That's usually the reason people get underlevelled - try not to run from every fight.

I think Ropers in the dungeon itself give a lot of exp if I'm not mistaken. I remember levelling up there a bit in my first game for gold/exp because it was fairly lucrative. Tales games aren't generally grindy, and you don't have too many boss walls unless you are avoiding a lot of fights and run up a particularly tricky enemy. The biggest offender is the second boss in Abyss if you play a new game from hard mode. It's the first major boss, it's a really tough 3v4, and they have massive defense stats meaning you need some grinding to finish the battle in a reasonable time. But it's nothing too insane.

Mania/Unknown difficulty runs are crazy though, and not something to go into unprepared (most games require unlocking those difficulties first).

[Lord Satori]

The Binding of Isaac Rebirth. It's a rouge-like dungeon based game inspired by the story of Abraham sacrificing his son, except it's the mother this time, and judging by the intro, it's during modern times as well. There are a few other unlockable characters with Biblical names such as Eve, Azazel, Cain, etc.

It's a very cool game, but the Mother boss is a huge hurdle, and I've only beaten her once. Though it's odd hearing her shout "ISAAC!" considering that's my name as well. The first time I beat her, I got lucky and got a kickass loadout with Azazel, who can fly and use a mega laser beam instead of the typical projectile tears. Once you beat her the first time, you get an epilogue cutscene, and "win", but then you unlock an additional deeper dungeon. To get to that deeper dungeon, you still have to beat the Mother, and she's a total pain. In the latest attempt, I used Lazarus, who isn't that special, except when he dies the first time, he comes back to life with one heart max. So that happened before I got to her, but I beat her just as a projectile hit me and I DIED! I'd have to say that that is the worst thing when playing an action game. Losing and winning at the same fucking time! Anyway, it's a pretty cool game. I recommend it for anyone who like rouge-likes, or likes Super Meat Boy, because they're by the same person.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

A Memory Gem will always be dropped by one of the enemy formations in that dungeon. The Memory Gem isn't tied to that specific dungeon, so if you have one from an earlier dungeon you didn't use, you could use it. I don't remember what groups have it, and I'm not up to that point in my current run, but just fight the battles in that dungeon to find it.

Equip the Poison Charm you should have on one of your characters. While the boss does not use Poison, the Poison Charm does have Resist Water. While level 18 shouldn't be necessary for Normal, I would recommend at least grinding so you have enough to stock up on the max for Life Bottles and Gels.


Early game Symphonia is pretty tough in general though. I was definitely having trouble my first time on Hard and ended up lowering it to Normal for most of the game. If you're playing the PS2/PS3 version, the enemy damage formulas makes the game harder than on Gamecube because you take a lot more damage, but I don't know how much so since I've only played the PS3 release. Having trouble in the early game is quite common though, but it will get a lot easier later.

I really need to get back to my no grade shop bonuses Mania run(except Titles for the Costumes which don't give + stats on level up, plus I need one more title for 100%). That's something else I like about Symphonia's gameplay because it's before the Abyss, Vesperia, and Xillia Unknowns where you have to use grade shop for it to be playable on its hardest mode. Graces f Chaos and Xillia 2 Unknown are also playable without grade shop stuff if you want. I don't know about the prior games to Symphonia if they're also doable without using grade shop for advantages.

[Mortificator]

Beast Busters! I'm trying to see if there's a way to make it through without using a ton of credits.

Kind of surprising how hard it is, relative to other mounted machine gun games I've played. Operation Wolf's a total cakewalk, and Laser Ghost (which is practically a family-friendly Sega clone of SNK's game) isn't too much tougher, but Beast Busters is a savage zombie massacre. When multiple hitscanners with high HP show up simultaneously, damage is unavoidable and often severe.

If there is a way to survive, it probably has something to do with health items. On stage 3, for example, sometimes I've got none, yet once five medkits floated down in short succession. I've never even seen the full-health item shown in the attract mode in gameplay. There might be some way of triggering this stuff.

Of course, it could be random. The game might be balanced for three players, or not at all.

[Bananamatic]

Perhaps another reason is that I'm at level 12, googling tells me to be at level 18 for this fight but how? It'd be a good 6 hours of idiotic grinding at 25exp per battle out in the field map. This is my first experience in the series, are all Tales games like this?

Have you been running from fights a lot? Or has your team been dead in a lot of fights? There's a point early in the game where you can choose between an easy path or a harder path where you fight tougher bosses earlier than you normally would, but it sounds like you're doing the "easier" route (the hard path requires taking a really obtuse roundabout path and ignoring an obvious town from what I remember), so I imagine you're just underlevelled due to running a lot? That's usually the reason people get underlevelled - try not to run from every fight.

Random battles in symphonia are good only for switching from T to S and getting skill usage
You can beat even mania mode without any exp or hp modifiers without much trouble(including the optional bosses), the forced battles provide you with all the exp you need
I generally run from all randoms, they give shit exp and are not worth it at all

If you're having issues with a boss, just try a different setup(3 casters are pretty damn good for single high damage bosses, especially once you get both Photon and Absolute) and abuse elemental resistance
Or just get more life bottles and keep trying as the AI will sometimes fuck up big time and there's nothing you can do(though that only becomes an issue on mania and some fights on hard)

EDIT: Actually I think this part of the game is pretty open and the water seal boss is by far the hardest of the things you can do now(and you really shouldn't be level 12 now even with all the escaping), you should be able to do 2 other things first before doing this part

Also, don't use Genis & Raine together.

Spell queue really isn't an issue in this game, Absolute and Photon both ignore enemy hyper armor allowing you to completely lock down most bosses(or use Prism Sword instead of Absolute against light weak bosses to completely destroy them)
Also Raine's Keenness is pretty damn broken

The biggest offender is the second boss in Abyss if you play a new game from hard mode. It's the first major boss, it's a really tough 3v4, and they have massive defense stats meaning you need some grinding to finish the battle in a reasonable time. But it's nothing too insane.

I tried playing Abyss on fresh Hard, grinded for the boss you mentioned for quite a long time, then I got pretty much walled by Abaddon(did almost no damage to him and had to solo him with Guy, took over 20 minutes) and the boss in the desert ruins just made me switch to Normal as it was fucking stupid(they take like 8x longer to kill on Hard compared to Normal, third grindwall already, no thanks)

Fresh Mania on Symphonia really doesn't have shit on fresh Hard Abyss, the former can be beaten quite easily with some minimal grinding for money early on(or you could just grade shop crafting materials and sell them, same thing really) and the bosses still drop in an acceptable amount of time, the latter is just a load of dogshit and endless tedious grinding just to be able to hurt the boss

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Abyss tried to use ToD2's stat scaling where melee is supposed to be weaker than spells, but it's a lot harder to protect your casters in Abyss since it's a 3D battlefield and not a 2D one where you can block the enemy.

[broken harbour]

Have you been running from fights a lot? Or has your team been dead in a lot of fights? There's a point early in the game where you can choose between an easy path or a harder path where you fight tougher bosses earlier than you normally would, but it sounds like you're doing the "easier" route (the hard path requires taking a really obtuse roundabout path and ignoring an obvious town from what I remember), so I imagine you're just underlevelled due to running a lot? That's usually the reason people get underlevelled - try not to run from every fight.

Actually no, there's a few I walked away from, but maybe... 5 total up to this point in the game. It's really only some of the boss battles that are annoying, and really, this one in the water temple/dungeon is the first one to frustrate me. The enemies in the dungeon do give alot of exp, but they also weaken your party and use up all your items, which you need for the boss. My last attempt (where I rage quit and did something else) I actually used two holy bottles to stop enemy encounters so I could race through the puzzle part of the dungeon, and found myself lasting longer against the boss. (Not by much mind you).

[Chaos Phoenixma]

You don't get photon until level 18 and don't get Absolute until level 58. Colette's Grand Cross angel skill also does the same thing as Photon or Absolute, but that's level 42, and it's PS2/PS3 version only. Photon is another great reason to get to level 18 though since it can catch enemies when they try to break your combo by just falling down, though you can potentially use Demon Fang for that if you know it's about to happen.


IIRC, Spell queue interferes with all 3 of these, but if it weren't for the spell queue, imagine all 3 of these being spammed. I still hate the mechanic because it doesn't really let you use Genis and Raine in the same party (I mainly use Colette as my main, Lloyd as secondary main, Presea, and Raine while I would switch Lloyd or Presea out if the queue didn't exist)

[Bananamatic]

Actually no, there's a few I walked away from, but maybe... 5 total up to this point in the game. It's really only some of the boss battles that are annoying, and really, this one in the water temple/dungeon is the first one to frustrate me. The enemies in the dungeon do give alot of exp, but they also weaken your party and use up all your items, which you need for the boss. My last attempt (where I rage quit and did something else) I actually used two holy bottles to stop enemy encounters so I could race through the puzzle part of the dungeon, and found myself lasting longer against the boss. (Not by much mind you).

like I said, you still got here a boss or two earlier than you would on the "default" order

the early game still kinda sucks because life bottles and gels are expensive as hell early on(on top of all the equipment) and once you start getting more cash and unlock the 60% healing gels(not to mention better healing spells) the game becomes much easier

speaking of this game I should give the PS2 version a shot, I only had the PAL gamecube one and the framerate was pretty shitty

[broken harbour]

Actually no, there's a few I walked away from, but maybe... 5 total up to this point in the game. It's really only some of the boss battles that are annoying, and really, this one in the water temple/dungeon is the first one to frustrate me. The enemies in the dungeon do give alot of exp, but they also weaken your party and use up all your items, which you need for the boss. My last attempt (where I rage quit and did something else) I actually used two holy bottles to stop enemy encounters so I could race through the puzzle part of the dungeon, and found myself lasting longer against the boss. (Not by much mind you).

like I said, you still got here a boss or two earlier than you would on the "default" order

the early game still kinda sucks because life bottles and gels are expensive as hell early on(on top of all the equipment) and once you start getting more cash and unlock the 60% healing gels(not to mention better healing spells) the game becomes much easier

speaking of this game I should give the PS2 version a shot, I only had the PAL gamecube one and the framerate was pretty shitty

Woah what? I'm out of order here?

I tried again tonight, after 8 attempts I'm ready to throw my expensive ps3 controller against the wall. I'm dropping this hunk of crap. I don't understand why people like a frustrating experience like this. What a piece of sh*t. Its just so unfair, blocking seems random, as half the time the boss blows through it, then a single attack takes 800hp off and ko's you, then, when using a life bottle, before you can block you're hit with another 800hp attack and you're ko'd again. F**k this game.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

You can't just spam guard and some attacks are going to break it very easily. If you can you should try to backstep if possible, guard, and though it does not apply to this boss jumping over them. A Unison attack with Pow Hammer and one of Genis/Kratos lightning skills gives you a unison that should do decently against that boss. While getting to level 18 for Photon and Para Ball would be useful as well, it shouldn't be a must. And while it is completely cheesy and I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to completely remove any challenge, Pow Hammer at over 200 uses can occasionally toss a poison hammer that can poison everything in the game, even the superbosses. After a while of surviving after that, the boss would be at 1 HP ready to be finished off.

The PS2/PS3 version adds some nice stuff but has some downsides too. There's some extra titles, so the minimum number of playthroughs to 100% is now 5 instead of 3(you need to pick Genis and Regal at Flanoir at least once in addition to the 3 from gamecube). The cursed book dungeon no longer requires you to be in NG+ to do it(though you'll need to be to do it on Mania) and has 20 floors now instead of 15 and 2 new sets of bosses. The Devil Arm boss cannot have his damage halved by using an All-Divide(but your damage will still be halved if you try it) and is immune to Unison attacks after a certain point in battle(but only on Normal). All playable characters have Mystic Artes and some bosses got some new attacks.


The downside is that it's 30 FPS in battles, but there's no slowdown issues in the battles.


I actually loaded up my current playthrough save earlier after not playing it for a few months. Got past the Clumsy Assassin fight finally and now get to go to Palmacosta. Mania without carryovers(I put everyone in costumes before beating the last cycle so transferring Titles won't affect anyone's stats) has been ridiculous so far. The lack of artes, HP, or decent equipment options makes it so easy to die this early, and I'm on normal HP since I didn't do +500 or minimal. Still, my grinding for Gald to spend on items got me up to around levels 13-14 and I still had to use most of my items on that fight cause I could not keep the 2 bosses seperate in that fight.

I definitely would not want to play required fights only or half experience without transferring a lot of Gald, Techs, and +500 HP. I have no idea what the solo players take for their runs(2x or 10x Experience and what else?), but the combination of unskippable cutscenes, no Retry option, and lack of free run without any great way to deal with it for most characters means I'd never try it myself.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

What a piece of sh*t. Its just so unfair, blocking seems random, as half the time the boss blows through it

First thing: don't put stars in your curse words. Either be an adult and fucking curse properly or use words other than expletives. It looks silly when you substitute vowels with asterisks.

Second: blocking is random? Since when? Blocking is quite reliable when a) you don't try to block magic and b) you don't block attacks while facing the wrong way. Guard breaks aren't terribly common unless you sit there holding guard, though there are a few enemies with instant guard break attacks (I don't remember too many of these). And you can technically use your special guard to block anything including magic, though dodging is usually better because Guardian is a TP whore.

then, when using a life bottle, before you can block you're hit with another 800hp attack and you're ko'd again

You can switch to the character you just revived, or focus on healing yourself first. If you need to heal desperately, you can change strategy settings to force the AI into using defense only. Or level up a bit more. The early part of the game does have a bit of non-linearity to make additional playthroughs interesting. If you're having trouble, you can always level up a bit (which helps get items for crafting as well as more Gald - you HAVE been buying the newest equipment right?), or try exploring and seeing if you can find somewhere else to go check out first. Even if not another dungeon, exploring the map for skit points is interesting.

I'm thinking maybe real-time combat RPGs just aren't your thing.

The one thing I love about the Tales games is they're very skill dependent. Levels and items alone won't save you (though extreme overlevelling can), but on the flip side, even if you're underlevelled, you still have a fighting chance if you're good at the combat itself. Or if you play as Colette.

[EmperorIng]

After nearly two years of owning Dark Savior for the Saturn, I finally beat the game.

Pros: neat plot, great world-building and setting, and some genuinely fun platforming and puzzles that require actual skill to complete

Cons: story completely unravels halfway (two-thirds?) through the game; some platforming challenges are a bit too precise and made needlessly tricky due to isometric perspective; game is butt-ugly and often crashes to a halt when more than a handful of polygons are on screen at once (which is often)

The final half of the game is pretty uninspired, since you are revisiting a handful of areas that you basically -just- completed, only now with an overly-generous time limit (I think you only need fifteen minutes of the hour they give you). Not very exciting, especially when there are really no new characters or situations to liven things up.

Still, it's a pretty enjoyable game, but perhaps its most damning praise is that it makes me want to play Landstalker and Alundra even more. It's easily the weakest of the three Climax games. But it has its moments. A cool soundtrack, for one. Also, it does a great job of making one isolated area - some prison shithole on the periphery of a sci-fi fantasy world - come alive and feel like something that is larger than what it really is. Great 'lore' and such, and the characters are very likable (localization mishaps aside; e.g. booze becoming "Jalapeno Juice"; this is more awful when said 'juice' is a crucial part of the plot).

That's one more Saturn game beat. Maybe one day I can finally beat Gungriffon and 1CC RayForce while I'm at it! But not any time soon; the Genesis has been swapped in and now I am going to beat Landstalker, dammit. Then probably Alundra.

[Bananamatic]

I tried min HP/half exp before and I got past the wind seal dungeon, then just got bored

you only have like 3 difficult bosses left past that point anyways

[Icarus]

Started playing The Evil Within (X360) (or Psycho Break as it's known in Japan, as I have the Japanese version) and really enjoying it at the moment.

The severely limited resources; low inventory size compared to other games like Resident Evil and Dead Space; and the reliance on careful, intelligent combat means you have to play much more carefully, looking to stealth-kill as much as possible to conserve ammo and syringes in the early game. I already like it a lot for this reason alone, as there's a much greater feeling of vulnerability here, having to take time to scout areas, and looking for the best course of action. The scouting also helps in finding ammo, matches and brain juice hidden away in the dark recesses of the playfield. I can see it turning into a more action-oriented game as it goes on though, but again, that's fine as the combat is fun.

I have no problems with the low FoV and the letterboxing. As for the "horror" not being actually subtle, I think The Evil Within is more of an "oppressive, disorienting atmosphere" kind of horror like in Silent Hill, than the "shock and awe" kind of horror in Dead Space. It just so happens I love both.

[rapoon]

Valkyria Chronicles on PC. No description necessary. Fucker is 20GB.

other than VC, playing Shadowrun: Dragonfall (incredible game) and Soul Hackers.

[trap15]

Motha

Fuckin

Ｄ．Ｄ．ＣＲＥＷ

Best game ever.

[drauch]

I think you've got a new profile picture in the future.

[null1024]

Ys: Memories of Celceta [Vita].
Haven't played it in a while so I started back.
I forgot how great this game is. 10 or so hours in, assembled the entire party, going to chase whats-his-face for the Mask of the Sun [that's not a spoiler, this is supposed to be Ys IV]

I spent a fair bit of time killing some huge plant thing that did 300+ damage each hit. It hit harder and had more HP than the bosses I'd seen. I ended up standing slightly out of range to heal, since I ran out of items. There's a tiny as fuck window between its attacks, and I kept getting hit.

silly thing: stood where it was after defeating it, waited for entire party to heal, was about to heal my last party member when the fucker respawns and I ran like fuck

[Hagane]

Congrats. I on-and-off practice Makaimura, but I get the feeling that the game is too random to be worth putting in the effort for the clear, as opposed to its more manageable sequels (not that I've made it farther than level 3 in either Dai or Cho, though I've made it to 1-5 on one life in the original).

I'll look forward to watching your replay; I'm sure it will give me some valuable hints for surviving Dai.

Makaimura seemed too archaic for my taste, since I tried it after clearing Dai. Cho was a huge disappointment, how could they take vertical shooting away? I can't understand how they could take such a stupid step back. Huge slowdown doesn't help.

Tried The Evil Within and is slow as hell. Lots of story bits, nothing happens, few enemies, very boring. I'd love to see something like the old PS1 REs (meaning no filler to make it longer than it should be) with a modern control setup. Probably will never happen since reviewers would complain you can clear it in a couple of hours.

[iconoclast]

The first two chapters of The Evil Within are very slow, especially since CH2 is mainly about stealth. The game doesn't start to open up until chapter 3, and by chapter 5 it's pretty much in full swing. I don't know if you only played the demo, but they basically decided to try and sell people on the game by highlighting the worst parts (the first two chapters). Not the brightest idea.

Anyway, I just finished my Infinite Climax Pure Platinum run in Bayonetta 2 (uploading the replays here)

Took a little longer than I would've liked because I was sick for a few days, but I'm glad I finished right before I got the Halo collection.

Normally I'd write some type of review, but ain't nobody got time for that when there's a metric fuckton of Halo to be played. I'll just say that the game is amazing, and that the only flaw that really sticks out to me is some poor balancing. The Bracelet of Time and the earrings that transform you into the mech are insanely overpowered, and of course, Pulley's Butterfly is as godly as ever. All of those are practically "I Win" buttons (though some of the bosses are still a challenge to PP, even with the BoT). I also don't like how they removed the penalty for item usage. It would be fine if there were only items for health recovery, magic recovery, and even the attack power increase, but not when there's an item that literally makes you invincible. What a joke, lol.

All that being said, it's still better than the original in every way and it's one of the best games in the genre. I especially like how the mid-size enemies can now defend themselves with their parry ability. It makes combat much more interesting.

[Hagane]

I played till halfway the second chapter on the retail version, and later watched a friend on chapter 7 IIRC, and things didn't seem to pick up much.

[Blinge]

The Binding of Isaac Rebirth.... Though it's odd hearing her shout "ISAAC!" considering that's my name as well.

Haha, I won't spoil but it'll get a whole lot weirder for you.

Mom, aswell as most of the game gets easier once you get more and more exposed to the different enemy formations, your pattern recognition kicks in. Also you'll figure out little tricks to squeeze more potential out of your loadouts.
I shall now shamelessly brag about getting all the achievements in the original Binding of Isaac. k done.

[EmperorIng]

I tried min HP/half exp before and I got past the wind seal dungeon, then just got bored

you only have like 3 difficult bosses left past that point anyways

That's still a rough feat; it feels as if the damage output of enemies in Landstalker is pretty damn high. Not that combat is the game's strong point (far from it).

Makaimura seemed too archaic for my taste, since I tried it after clearing Dai. Cho was a huge disappointment, how could they take vertical shooting away? I can't understand how they could take such a stupid step back. Huge slowdown doesn't help.

Not sure about the step back from Cho myself, though I still enjoy it as a console GnG. Even on the Saturn pack, the game feels much slower than Makaimura and Dai by a mile.

Makaimura is pretty archaic, and it's hard to get myself worked up into another frenzy only to step one inch forward, four inches back every time I make it to stage 5.

I'd love to see something like the old PS1 REs (meaning no filler to make it longer than it should be) with a modern control setup. Probably will never happen since reviewers would complain you can clear it in a couple of hours.

Replaying RE1 a few months back again made me really appreciate how lean the game is. Aside from one glaring point, the game really does not waste your time, and the semi non-linear nature of the mansion, and the variety of combat options, makes for fun replays. The aforesaid glaring point being the love-it-or-hate-it inventory. Sometimes, having to run back halfway across the map to get Hex Crank B for Stone Statue C kills the mood. The game overall though is fabulous. I'd love a return to taut survival horror, though admittedly if you know what you are doing in RE1 you have more ammo than you know what to do with. Magnum rounds for everyone!

[Pretas]

You don't need vertical shooting in Chou, the stages are designed to be played without it, and Arthur's considerably more powerful arsenal coupled with the double jump is enough to compensate. It's a much easier game overall than the first two, with dopey and arthritic Arremers that are easily dispatched with arrows or axes.

Goku Kai is potentially a much harder game, depending on how much you exploit the armor and magic systems.