What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Leandro]

Bought a pack of 6 Hitman games sometime this year and now decided to play one of them - I started with Blood Money.

Nice game, just finished the Manoel father and son assassination, I also loved the newspaper article after each level

[Gespenst]

Just started my Ace Combat marathon, starting from Zero and Air Combat.

Spoiler

and will be coincidentally doing the Hresvelger/Talon of Ruin mission by tomorrow

[Lord Satori]

Just finished playing Fran Bow. Was hoping it'd be a bit longer, but it was still amazing, and anyone who loves surreal games that mess with your head will love this game.

The end feels a little too open ended though. Maybe they're planning a sequel?

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Picked up Ys I & II Chronicles as well as Ys VI: Ark of Napishtim during the Steam sale in addition to Mushihimesama. Going to pick up a few more games during it too though, but playing the Ys games first.



I didn't play too far into Ys 1 Nightmare yet an have been playing Napishtim mostly. Game is pretty fun so far. Picked Nightmare+ Catastrophe and have played up until I have all 3 of the swords. The bosses don't seem as great as the Origin or Felghana bosses yet, but there's definitely some potential for the later ones. This game seems a lot grindier than either Origin or Felghana at the moment since Emel to upgrade the weapons seems to not drop in worthwhile quantity. Catastrophe replacing healing items in chests with Capla Waters does help a little with the Gold though, so you can get a few things early to help with it. The buyable seeds to boost stats would likely be an advantage over Normal Nightmare later in the game despite Catastrophe disabling healing items making them autoused on pickup, but I'm going to try not to use them for more of a challenge(I will use ones that aren't bought though).

[BIL]

Speaking of NIGHTMARE, I'm enjoying some good ol' willy-stiffening CYBER VIOLENCE AGAINST ZOMBIES AND GOATMEN. Somebody PHONE THE U.N.

Spoiler

I AM DEATH/THE HAND IS MINE

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Alien vs. Predator (arcade)

What a nightmare of a final boss. I thought I was close to 1CCing the game when I started making it to the final alien queen, but an hour's worth of practice against her, with only 20% of attempts being successful, tells me otherwise. Feels like a completely hopeless fight.

[Squire Grooktook]

Alien vs. Predator (arcade)

What a nightmare of a final boss. I thought I was close to 1CCing the game when I started making it to the final alien queen, but an hour's worth of practice against her, with only 20% of attempts being successful, tells me otherwise. Feels like a completely hopeless fight.

I was having the same experience, till I switched strategies and everything just "clicked" while practicing.

Assuming you're playing with a Predator, the fight is pure hit and run, but with an agressive slant. Your dive attack does the most damage and is the safest of all possible options, so use it constantly. It's a good defense as well as an offense since you can use it to switch sides with her if cornered. Pepper her with projectile fire if you can work one in before a dive too. Use the wall jump to set up space if needed, and remember that the 360 attack forces her to back step.

A key to the fight is the enemy reinforcements: they arrive after each previous wave dies. All but the last (including the previously terrifying smashers, who go down here en masse to dive spam very easily here) are manegable, but you are in serious trouble if the final dual Praetorian wave arrives. One great strategy is to try and delay killing the last of the two Chrystalis's (it's easiest with them, since their ai tends to actively evade you unlike the other aliens) for as long as possible. After them, the rest will wander into your dives whether you like it or not, so focus on diving the Queen to death as fast as possible after the Chrystalis's die.

[Hagane]

Yeah, you should avoid killing both Chrysalis if you want to make things easier. Killing the one that roams the lower half of the screen sometimes makes the one on the upper half ignore you, letting you focus on the Queen herself.

As Squire says a runaway strategy is most desirable. With Kurosawa I just do jump down+A all the time to hit and run, then shoot as I get away. An alternate method that can make the Queen much easier is to try to save as much Pulse Gun ammo as possible. THis can be hard to do as you have to fight many humans before her, but you can avoid wasting ammo by starting your combos with slides or grabs.

Once the fight with the Queen starts, get away as soon as possible and shoot her with the Pulse Gun, then grab more ammo from the boxes as she gets stunned, then shoot again till she does the tail attack. Avoid it by moving to the edge of the screen on the side the tail is on, then shoot again till she dies. Pulse Guns do massive damage so four or five cartridges can kill her very quick.

Shoryukens can be very safe if you do them so you end crossing her up when you recover, too. A couple of hits into a shoryuken can be a safe way to deal damage.

Also, you should take a look at avspadmirer's Youtube channel if you haven't already: https://www.youtube.com/user/AvsPadmirer

[Leandro]

Finished Blood Money... Terrific game!

Now I want to play Silent Assassin and Contract Killer, then Absolution.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Finished Ark of Napishtim on Nightmare Catastrophe.

Was a decent challenge for the most part, though I hated the having to grind sword levels and other stuff. Managed to get through without buying any of the stat boosting seeds that Catastrophe mode lets you buy, though I had to get to level 52 instead of the level 50 I was hoping for, though some of that was boosting up the fire and lightning swords to max level(which requires 500k emel on Nightmare unlike the 100k I saw mentioned in a guide for Normal )


Hardest story boss was pretty much

Spoiler

Ernst

, though there were a few other tough fights. The damage I was taking in that fight felt like such BS at level 50, though it likely wouldn't have been too bad on Nightmare Standard since I would have actually had healing items to use. Still lost a bit at 52, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad. And the hurtbox on the lightning seemed screwed up or there's something I'm not sure how you dodge it, so I got hit most of the time it came up.


As for Majunun, there was no way I was grinding to high 50's for that. That was one point where I was thinking screw this and bought a lot of + 1 Attack Seeds just for that fight so that I could do it at a much more reasonable level. Gold grind is so much quicker than experience grind. It was still kind of tough due to my lacking defensive stats as well as the not being able to heal in the fight due to Catastrophe mode and I had to use the revival item for it(but I had already beaten the game on a different save slot).

Whenever I decide I want a fairer fight with Majunun, I'll just go into Time Attack.

Still need the Steam achievements for winning the duel, which wouldn't take too long to get and the one for finding the Tabulas. For the Boss Rush one, I just cheesed through it on Normal, but I'll definitely attempt to do it on Nightmare eventually(how hard can it possibly be with healing items?) and Nightmare Catastrophe(No idea if I'd be able to pull that one off since the spoilered boss above and Majunun are kind of a pain)


My time for the run was pretty bad, but what do you expect of blind runs. I know of some things I missed the first time through that I picked up later that could definitely help as well as getting lost by not knowing where to go. Outside of that, I'd need to look up good grind spots and some other stuff. Would definitely like to improve on the time eventually, but I'd need to practice and figure what's needed and what isn't.

[Leandro]

Finished Silent Assassin. Aside from the two middle Japan missions (the first and the last are good), the game is top notch.

Hitman marathon... I'm going to install Contracts now

[PooshhMao]

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. Easily one of my favorite video games of all time, out of the thousands I've played.

I'm not a huge wrestling fan or anything, but I do enjoy a quality wrestling video game. It doesn't get any better than this, and I'm not sure it will, ever, since the lead developer of the series passed away, unfortunately.

Simply browsing the move gallery in the wrestler edit mode can keep me thoroughly entertained for hours. Obviously, an unfathomable amount of blood, tears, sweat, love for the subject matter and attention to detail went into this game - probably more so than any other game, ever.

[iconoclast]

Fire Pro Returns is an absolute masterpiece, but the series actually went on for a while without its creator (Masato Masuda). I don't think he worked on any of the games that Spike developed after Human Entertainment closed, and I'm not sure if he even worked on Human's later games (6 Men Scramble on the Saturn was their best). I'd like to look at the full credits for each of the major entries to be sure, but I can't find much on youtube (and I'm far too lazy to hook the systems up and do it myself).

The real reason why there probably won't ever be a better wrestling game is because both the games and wrestling itself became too niche. TLDR; Japanese wrestling started to decline heavily in the early 2000s, for a variety of reasons. When Returns came out in 2005, it only sold 30k copies. Wrestling's in better shape now than it was back then because New Japan has been hot for a few years, but they're still nothing compared to how big they used to be in the 90s. Not to mention that the only other successful promotions out there - Dragon Gate and DDT - are essentially indie-level. There just isn't as much interest in wrestling as there used to be, and that's true for the entire world, not just Japan.

Anyway, I recommend trying out King of Colosseum II on the PS2 if you haven't yet. It's another wrestling game from Spike, and it's basically Fire Pro in 3D.

[PooshhMao]

Fire Pro Returns is an absolute masterpiece, but the series actually went on for a while without its creator (Masato Masuda). I don't think he worked on any of the games that Spike developed after Human Entertainment closed, and I'm not sure if he even worked on Human's later games (6 Men Scramble on the Saturn was their best). I'd like to look at the full credits for each of the major entries to be sure, but I can't find much on youtube (and I'm far too lazy to hook the systems up and do it myself).

The real reason why there probably won't ever be a better wrestling game is because both the games and wrestling itself became too niche. TLDR; Japanese wrestling started to decline heavily in the early 2000s, for a variety of reasons. When Returns came out in 2005, it only sold 30k copies. Wrestling's in better shape now than it was back then because New Japan has been hot for a few years, but they're still nothing compared to how big they used to be in the 90s. Not to mention that the only other successful promotions out there - Dragon Gate and DDT - are essentially indie-level. There just isn't as much interest in wrestling as there used to be, and that's true for the entire world, not just Japan.

Anyway, I recommend trying out King of Colosseum II on the PS2 if you haven't yet. It's another wrestling game from Spike, and it's basically Fire Pro in 3D.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated. Yeah; KOCII is definitely on my wanted list - I've watched it on Youtube and I'm keen to give it a try.

[BulletMagnet]

Currently tooling around with Trails of Cold Steel on the PS3 - I've only dipped a toe into Trails in the Sky so I can't really compare them, but so far I'm tempted to describe the game as a "JRPG Greatest Hits" album, as it borrows elements from loads of other series (off the cuff I'd call out features inspired by Persona, Grandia, Tales, Valkyrie Profile, and several others). For the most part everything seems to fit together pretty well, though the graphics (and some of the voice acting) isn't much beyond what you'd find on the PS2; that said, this is definitely a JRPG'er's JRPG, as you're encouraged to comb over everything anew every time a story point is passed, to make sure you don't miss anything (or just to hear everything all the characters have to say). You can skip a lot of it if you want, but you'll miss 1) Stuff that'll make things at least a bit easier, and 2) The point of the game, kinda. Now to see how long I stick with it before heading back to Yakuza 5...

[Hagane]

Gave a quick try to a very interesting doujin puzzle platformer called Reverse X Reverse. You control two girls at once, each with opposing gravities (meaning that one jumps as in any platformer and the other jumps down and falls up. You have to collect some items to remove obstacles while advancing towards the end of each stage.

Besides the novel (edit: well not so much, apparently Ibb & Obb did something similar earlier) mechanic, the game is interesting because it mixes thinking with execution very well (most other such games tend to lean more towards problem solving). The thinking comes from planning a way to let both characters advance and grab the progress enabling items, and the execution of that planning is more demanding than in any other such game I played. Definitely feels rather arcade-y so far.

Another interesting thing is the variety of techniques at your disposal. You can "link" both characters with a sort of rope, which serves to carry the other character, vital to lead both girls to the goal. Each of them has an unique movement skill, the pink haired girl can double jump and the other has an airdash. Combining these techniques with the link is vital for progress. And of course, you can switch characters at any moment to tackle obstacles from the other girl's perspective. It can be a bit confusing at first, but so far a joy to play.

A plus for keyboard users like me is that it lets you re-config all buttons, directionals included. Hope more Japanese developers follow suit.

So far my only annoyance are the voices. I recommend turning their volume down to zero on the config menu unless you enjoy hearing MOE NYAN KAWAII ^___^ comments every second. Other than that is a very unique and interesting game that's definitely worth a try if you are into platformers. Available on Steam.

A video to have an idea on how it plays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih5myVMCEB8
A trailer with infuriating voice acting (don't let that turn you off, you can mute the damn moeblobs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Axo2KAkz0

[Blinge]

Curious to see how far you'll go.

La Mulana:
So far I've got four bosses down and 3 seals collected. I'm currently fumbling around the extinction chamber, hoping there's a permanent light source somewhere. I wouldn't say I'm stuck yet as there's other places to explore still.

Spoiler

The pistol kills the first boss in about 3 shots!? I said 'wtf' and reset the game so I could fight them legit. I guess the gun's meant as a noob friendly solution you have to grind for.

Sakit (mausoleum of giants) and the fish, Bahamut, were pretty brutal, though I did both without a whip upgrade. No idea how you're supposed to whip Sakit's second form, I just spammed shurikens. I do wish there was an instant reward for bosses.

Solving a puzzle from hours ago with newfound knowledge or equipment is more satisfying in La Mulana than any other game I can think of.

[Shepardus]

I started playing the La-Mulana remake the day before yesterday. I remember most of the early puzzles very clearly from the original, so progress has been pretty quick except for the bosses and mini-bosses, which I swear are way harder than they were in the original (though I might just suck more at games than I used to). I was tempted to cheese through Ellmac or Bahamut with the pistol, but I managed to get through after finding a couple more life jewels and upgrading my whip. I've gotten through the first four guardians and have two of the seals, and I'm starting to remember less, so here's where the real fun/frustration will start.

I've been liking the changes from the original I've seen so far. They make the beginning make more sense to newbies (which is when the game actually needs to make sense) and of course the interface is a lot more clear. Lots of other changes improving overall quality of life too, some from the new graphics (like with the

Spoiler

thing you're supposed to attack to unplug the drain

in the Spring in the Sky being a lot more visible in the remake), some from actually redesigned puzzles. The redesigned puzzles have been enough to keep me on my toes even when I remember most of the stuff, and now there's more and more stuff I don't remember clearly. The Bronze Mirror took me embarrassingly long to find since it wasn't in the same place I remember from the original... I even walked by it several times without realizing it was there and I could get to that place.

I'm currently fumbling around the extinction chamber, hoping there's a permanent light source somewhere.

There is, but if it's anything like the original you probably won't reach it for quite a while. Mulbruk even has a line saying pretty much that (that it's a long way's off). Keep an eye out for tablets talking about dispelling the darkness, I've seen several so far.

Spoiler

The pistol kills the first boss in about 3 shots!? I said 'wtf' and reset the game so I could fight them legit. I guess the gun's meant as a noob friendly solution you have to grind for.

Yup it is, just take a look at how much the ammo costs (far more than the pistol itself, or anything else in the game!).

Spoiler

Sakit (mausoleum of giants) and the fish, Bahamut, were pretty brutal, though I did both without a whip upgrade. No idea how you're supposed to whip Sakit's second form, I just spammed shurikens. I do wish there was an instant reward for bosses.

I also spammed shurikens. Very useful against a lot of things. I'm impressed that you got through Bahamut without a whip upgrade, it took me a whip upgrade, a bunch of flares, and more life jewels than had I counted on finding to do it. I really suck at dodging things in platformers.

Solving a puzzle from hours ago with newfound knowledge or equipment is more satisfying in La Mulana than any other game I can think of.

It really is great, especially when it comes after piecing together clues and going "oh, this is what those tablets are referring to!" I ended up using walkthroughs on my first playthrough of the original, but this time I want to get through without that.

[Hagane]

My two greatest recommendations for an easier experience in La-Mulana are

1- Write down everything you read on tablets/skeletons/conversations. Even stuff that seems unimportant or just story related can have a big clue for a puzzle you will find much later in the game. It will save you much swearing and frustration.

I hope La-Mulana 2 removes the arbitrary limit on the text saving program (and adding a text search feature would be even better).

2- Get the axe as soon as you can. It makes fights much easier thanks to its damage and excellent hitbox. Bahamut for example is much easier to hit with it.

[pokemon123]

Currently tooling around with Trails of Cold Steel on the PS3 - I've only dipped a toe into Trails in the Sky so I can't really compare them, but so far I'm tempted to describe the game as a "JRPG Greatest Hits" album, as it borrows elements from loads of other series (off the cuff I'd call out features inspired by Persona, Grandia, Tales, Valkyrie Profile, and several others). For the most part everything seems to fit together pretty well, though the graphics (and some of the voice acting) isn't much beyond what you'd find on the PS2; that said, this is definitely a JRPG'er's JRPG, as you're encouraged to comb over everything anew every time a story point is passed, to make sure you don't miss anything (or just to hear everything all the characters have to say). You can skip a lot of it if you want, but you'll miss 1) Stuff that'll make things at least a bit easier, and 2) The point of the game, kinda. Now to see how long I stick with it before heading back to Yakuza 5...

you understand everything right? I'm going through TITS FC right now. Haven't finished it though. Not sure if i can play cold steel without going ??? at some points.

[Ruldra]

2- Get the axe as soon as you can. It makes fights much easier thanks to its damage and excellent hitbox. Bahamut for example is much easier to hit with it.

The axe is also the perfect exploration tool. Thanks to the huge swing arc, you can hit targets above, in front and below you. I found a whole bunch of secrets by pure accident just by swinging the axe everywhere.

[Leandro]

Azure Strike Gunvolt. Pretty satisfying to get S+ ranking on stages. I cleared the game but I'm looking for the jewels on the levels.

[BulletMagnet]

you understand everything right? I'm going through TITS FC right now. Haven't finished it though. Not sure if i can play cold steel without going ??? at some points.

To the best of my knowledge Cold Steel takes place in the same world as Sky, but in a different region, and covers a more-or-less standalone story; from what I've gathered there are references to the previous games and such in here, but nothing absolutely necessary to knowing what's happening. There are also history books and such in the library that you can read to get a general overview of the world and what's been going on in it, so offhand I don't think having played the other Trails/Legend of Heroes games is necessary before jumping into Cold Steel. So far, at least, I'm keeping up with the progression of things without much trouble.

[Lobinden]

Fast Racing Neo on the Wii U.

Although it has its faults, I like it a lot and is probably the closest we'll get to a new F-Zero game unless nintendo change their minds.

[Blinge]

I really suck at dodging things in platformers.

I dunno man, the hitboxes on bahamut's attacks are kinda bullshit, or very unclear at least. Especially on his jumping attack, and it's easy to take massive contact damage from a boss when trying to get in and whip them.

I just found a

Spoiler

griffin type midboss in the twin labyrinths

and it is wrecking me.
There's a problem for first time players I guess, knowing when to back out of an area to come back stronger later, or deciding to press on regardless. I'm fresh off a ragequit myself, being killed enough to start whining about the controls..

edit: Also..

Keep an eye out for tablets talking about dispelling the darkness, I've seen several so far.

Yeah, i've found one at least. No idea what it means. I've been looking for what it referred to, found nothing so far. No hints pls

[Shepardus]

I just found a

Spoiler

griffin type midboss in the twin labyrinths

and it is wrecking me.
There's a problem for first time players I guess, knowing when to back out of an area to come back stronger later, or deciding to press on regardless. I'm fresh off a ragequit myself, being killed enough to start whining about the controls..

I think I know which midboss you're talking about, is it the one that

Spoiler

stops time and fires homing projectiles?

I was raging at that one for a while, I ended up waiting until I had the silver shield to defeat it. With that and the axe (I think an upgraded whip would also work fine), I stayed on a platform around the left-center of the screen to keep it flying at the top of the screen from left to right and just jumped up to hit it each time it came to the left. Chasing after it is pretty futile. I still took a whole lot of damage (hard to block those projectiles with the shield...) but barely managed to get through.

[Ruldra]

Lol, I kinda want to talk about my own La-Mulana run but I know people will flood me with tips and spoilers so I'm keeping my mouth shut

But here's an interesting thing: I was able to break the game sequence and get one item before you're supposed to.

Spoiler

In the Chamber of Birth, there's a statue that shoots an instakill laser beam if you get too close. You're supposed to have the golden shield to reflect the beam back to the statue to destroy it. It's possible to reflect a small bit of the beam with the silver shield, but your guard will break and you'll get hit. So here's what I did:

Activate the apps that extend invincibility time, get as close as you can to the statue without triggering it, drop some caltrops. Step on them to get invincible, approach the statue and reflect as much as you can before invincibility wears off. Step away and repeat. I kept doing this for a while and to my surprise it actually worked! The statue was destroyed and I got the Vessel item.

In the end it was for naught, the Vessel is completely useless where I am right now. But it felt like a small victory moment to me

[Hagane]

Hah, that was a good one. That technique comes really handy for avoiding some boss attacks, too.

[ooze9]

I've been playing Majyuuou - King of Demons on the Super Famicom for the last two days.


It's a good-looking action-platformer with atmospharic castlevania-settings, but it's quite short and (too) easy. I think i will clear the game with one credit today or tomorrow.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

I was having the same experience, till I switched strategies and everything just "clicked" while practicing.

Assuming you're playing with a Predator, the fight is pure hit and run, but with an agressive slant. Your dive attack does the most damage and is the safest of all possible options, so use it constantly. It's a good defense as well as an offense since you can use it to switch sides with her if cornered. Pepper her with projectile fire if you can work one in before a dive too. Use the wall jump to set up space if needed, and remember that the 360 attack forces her to back step.

A key to the fight is the enemy reinforcements: they arrive after each previous wave dies. All but the last (including the previously terrifying smashers, who go down here en masse to dive spam very easily here) are manegable, but you are in serious trouble if the final dual Praetorian wave arrives. One great strategy is to try and delay killing the last of the two Chrystalis's (it's easiest with them, since their ai tends to actively evade you unlike the other aliens) for as long as possible. After them, the rest will wander into your dives whether you like it or not, so focus on diving the Queen to death as fast as possible after the Chrystalis's die.

Yeah, you should avoid killing both Chrysalis if you want to make things easier. Killing the one that roams the lower half of the screen sometimes makes the one on the upper half ignore you, letting you focus on the Queen herself.

As Squire says a runaway strategy is most desirable. With Kurosawa I just do jump down+A all the time to hit and run, then shoot as I get away. An alternate method that can make the Queen much easier is to try to save as much Pulse Gun ammo as possible. THis can be hard to do as you have to fight many humans before her, but you can avoid wasting ammo by starting your combos with slides or grabs.

Once the fight with the Queen starts, get away as soon as possible and shoot her with the Pulse Gun, then grab more ammo from the boxes as she gets stunned, then shoot again till she does the tail attack. Avoid it by moving to the edge of the screen on the side the tail is on, then shoot again till she dies. Pulse Guns do massive damage so four or five cartridges can kill her very quick.

Shoryukens can be very safe if you do them so you end crossing her up when you recover, too. A couple of hits into a shoryuken can be a safe way to deal damage.

Also, you should take a look at avspadmirer's Youtube channel if you haven't already: https://www.youtube.com/user/AvsPadmirer

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I forgot to mention I am using Predator Warrior. I really like both of the human characters, but they're relatively complicated so I'm just sticking with the predator for now.

I practiced the fight for a few more hours after watching a lot of videos, but still couldn't really get anywhere. Diving is certainly the only real offensive option if you don't have a gun, but it's not reliable; she punishes you about 10% of the time (either mid-dive or as you land behind her). The former scenario seems preventable if you only ever divestab her from a specific angle, but not the latter (unless you use the defensive special every time you land, which of course isn't sustainable).

I tried keeping one of the Chrysalis enemies alive (having seen the strategy you mention in a few videos), but no matter how many times I ran the fight, both of them always made a beeline for me, and I couldn't figure out how to get the upper one to wander off. This definitely feels like an necessary strategy - keeping the smashers from ever spawning would be helpful, since using the divestab while they're on the field, and any of them are behind whatever you're targeting, basically guarantees that you'll lose a quarter or half of your health.

It actually kind of helped my chances once I started using the divestab only minimally, and using the defensive special to force her back way more often. Still haven't hit on a proper sustainable strategy yet though. It feels like before, I was beating her with one death around 50~60% of the time, and beating her with no deaths 10% of the time (the only wins that count, since I probably won't get to her with an extra life in stock). After I stopped using the divestab as my primary weapon, I started beating her 100% of the time, but the amount of times I managed to beat her without dying went down even further.