What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[KAI]

The original Jap release was physical. I think you can "patch" it using some files from the steam localization.


Since I finished Trails SC, I started playing Grandia again (dropped the game at least 10 time so far). I forgot how cheap the magic moves grinding was.

[BrianC]

Been playing Ninja Gaiden Shadow. Good stuff. Finally got to stage 5.

[Sinful]

After watching ZackyTheGoatragon do 1cc then a 2cc on hardest diffciulty of TMNT the Arcade game (MAME) on his twitch channel, I decided to revisit the 2 NES games these past 3 days. Originally as a kid I thought TMNT3 was better, but now it seems like TMNT2 is better. The pacing, difficulty balance/design and variety seems better in TMNT2, while in TMNT3 it feels more like the same hoards of enemies coming from the same spots over and over (part 2 at least mixes on what vertical plane foot soldier jump in the screen to keep you on your toes). Plus this drags on for way too long in TMNT3. I like fighting the bosses in TMNT2 better too.

Never 1cc'ed TMNT2 back in the day, or even beaten it. So I want to fix at least one of these. However TMNT3 I did 1cc as kid, so not sure if I'll do it again, especially considering what I've just said.

[qmish]

Hahah, You seem to have played the earlier entries? You knew what you were getting into surely..

Do you mean Persona 3 and 4? Because P1, 2IS and 2EP have much more % of dungeon crawling (and you can say that plot/setting is even better despite less amount of it haha)

[Sumez]

Besides, playing Undertale and Trails at the same time (connecting to the latter, failing to do so for the former) made me understand why I never felt the urge to replay P4 or finish P3: silent protagonists are fine for big picture, atmospheric types of games (SMT: Nocturne, Souls series, etc.) but when the goal of a game is to make me connect to a cast of characters, I feel like it just neuters the dialogue and character interactions when all the protag convo's are essentially one sided.

I'm not a big fan of silent protagonists in general. It rarely hurts the game, but it does feel a bit awkward - Chrono Trigger and Cross being very obvious examples where the game has multiple important characters that all talk, and the game just gets awkward in its attempts to get around Crono/Serge not talking. Of course it does allow for one scene with a "twist" in the case of CC, but that's about it.

Anyway, in the case of Undertale, I think it makes perfect sense, paired with the adrogyny of the main character. The game is entirely about the rest of the cast, not about the main character itself, and is very strongly designed about the character being anonymous in the way it is. It's too bad it has become easy to only relate the game to its horrible Touhou-ish fandom, but that shouldn't overshadow how amazing the game actually is.

I just finished Owlboy which also has a silent protagonist, but this game also gets a pass from me, as there is a story reason for the character not talking, and other characters doing the talking for him makes perfect sense.

[Durandal]

That reminds me of Wild Arms 1 where

Spoiler

the protagonist is silent during the entire duration of the game, but has one line of dialogue during an insignificant event when you least expect it

[Sumez]

Since you're already pointing it out in spoilers, here's the one for CC:

Spoiler

I was a bit thrown off when that happened. Of course there's a clear explanation to follow soon after

[Squire Grooktook]

Besides, playing Undertale and Trails at the same time (connecting to the latter, failing to do so for the former) made me understand why I never felt the urge to replay P4 or finish P3: silent protagonists are fine for big picture, atmospheric types of games (SMT: Nocturne, Souls series, etc.) but when the goal of a game is to make me connect to a cast of characters, I feel like it just neuters the dialogue and character interactions when all the protag convo's are essentially one sided.

I'm not a big fan of silent protagonists in general. It rarely hurts the game, but it does feel a bit awkward - Chrono Trigger and Cross being very obvious examples where the game has multiple important characters that all talk, and the game just gets awkward in its attempts to get around Crono/Serge not talking. Of course it does allow for one scene with a "twist" in the case of CC, but that's about it.

Anyway, in the case of Undertale, I think it makes perfect sense, paired with the adrogyny of the main character. The game is entirely about the rest of the cast, not about the main character itself, and is very strongly designed about the character being anonymous in the way it is. It's too bad it has become easy to only relate the game to its horrible Touhou-ish fandom, but that shouldn't overshadow how amazing the game actually is.

I just finished Owlboy which also has a silent protagonist, but this game also gets a pass from me, as there is a story reason for the character not talking, and other characters doing the talking for him makes perfect sense.

Yeah. I do like silent protagonists, but just in certain contexts where they work strongly. Undertale is indeed a great game. No slight against it. But I feel the reason that I didn't find it to be the masterpiece that others (including some on this forum, and I totally understand how they feel) did, is that the game really wants you to like its cast. And I just can't connect to a cast that essentially runs on Bob Newhart phone conversations. I think it's a great game for the clever meta-plot elements and overall charming presentation, but the actual writing didn't shake my world as friends told me it would. It's clever, cute, and unique. But it doesn't have as much story telling meat on its bones as I got from the simultaneous playthrough of Trails.

Speaking of, just finished the Trails In The Sky Saga with SC cleared (yeah I know there's 3c, but that's more of a spin off). I could ramble on about it (probably will later), but suffice to say it's definitely the best rpg I've ever played. SC did have some ups and downs compared to the brilliantly creative FC, but the finalie was perfectly handled in every regard and an example of what the ending of a story telling adventure game should be. Massive tension, a bit of comic relief that doesn't dull the drama, clever revelations, a thrilling intense and smart final battle that goes over the top in putting ALL your strategy skills to the test, and one utterly beautiful scene made it the perfect conclusion. All backed by a gorgeous and varied musical score that worked as back breakingly hard to sell it all as the writers, programmers, and designers did.

Spoiler

And just when the credits finished rolling and I was thinking "wow, that was all pretty epic, but I wish I could get one more cute, sweet scene with Joshua and Estelle before its over", BOOM. They do it. And they do it well. Awesome.

Fuck yes you are the best rpg ever

[Sumez]

I'm confused about the whole Trails series, but everyone seems to like it. Where would one start out?
An actually interesting plot in a Falcom game is a very new thing to me.

[Squire Grooktook]

FC = First Chapter. That story continues onto SC = Second Chapter, which concludes the storyline and world building set in Liberal. There's a 3C (Third Chapter) set there, but it's more of a spin off focusing on the side characters and tieing up some loose ends and plot points.

The gameplay is fun (love tinkering with the orbal magic system to fit your playstyle, and the tactical positioning needed in some of the fights is really smart), but be warned that it's a story game first and foremost: FC and SC have more text then the entire Lord of The Rings Trilogy combined. FC is also borderline slice of life in its plot progression, but it's downright scary how fun and engaging they made that in a video game.

Don't expect something gritty either. This is basically if they took all the old fanciful jrpg elements that you loved as a kid, and said "hey lets back this up with actually solid, methodical character development and world building that makes it feel cool and palatable to an adult". It has some drama and dark moments, but it's whimsical, fun, and above all else, sweet character driven game. I could critique it a bit, as its not flawless (particularly SC falters at times) but it succeeds where it needs to and the overall execution makes it work.

[BulletMagnet]

If you haven't heard the basic rundown, "Trails" is split into three trilogies, which all take place in the same world but at different times and places: "Trails in the Sky" is the oldest batch of releases (the first two have been localized, the third is on the way), "Trails of Nayuta" (did I get that right?) came after that (none have been localized, currently no plans for them either), and "Trails of Cold Steel" is the most recent (first two have been localized, last one is still in development). IIRC all of those are also technically part of the long-running "Legend of Heroes" series, but I couldn't begin to explain that off the top of my head, heh.

[Mischief Maker]

Having just finished Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys: Origin in quick succession I can say, silent protagonists are WONDERFUL in terms of cutting down the yak yak.

Holy crap were the endless dialogues irritating in Oath, to the point that I prefer Felghana despite Origin actually having the superior gameplay.

I don't care that you're filled with doubts about your skills, Yunica, I'm confident in my skills directing your whiny ass and I'd like to get going on the boss fight some time this decade!

[KAI]

"Trails of Nayuta" (did I get that right?)

the 3 kiseki entires are:
LoH VI Sora/Sky (FC-SC-The 3rd)
LoH VII Zero (Zero-Ao)
LoH VIII Sen/Cold Steel (I-II-III)

Nayuta is a spinoff, it's not included in the main series afaik.

[atheistgod1999]

Super Star Wars on Jedi difficulty. I've played for about half an hour, and so far I can get up to level 4. I can feel a frame or two of input lag. My new RGB cable for my SNES, displaying on my BVM-20F1U, makes it look fantastic. Now I have to finish some math homework (yes, over Thanksgiving weekend ), so I can't play for another hour or two.

[Mischief Maker]

Well fuck a duck!

No Man's Sky is actually starting to deliver on its promises of massive post-release updates!

[Sinful]

Wasn't there a 1cc for non-STG thread around here, or is this it?

[Sumez]

I prefer Felghana despite Oath actually having the superior gameplay.

edit: I was confused about which games you're talking about. Oath = Origin I suppose?
Somehow I thought you were comparing Felghana to Celceta, and there's no way in hell you could say Celceta has the superior gameplay
Felghana has the absolute best action gameplay I've seen in any Ys game.
I haven't played Origin though. I think I have it somewhere.

[Mischief Maker]

You're correct, I meant Origin. Post edited.

Ys Origin vs Felghana is kind of like Devil May Cry 4 vs 3. In terms of overall experience the earlier title is flat out superior, but some significant improvements to the gameplay in the newer title make it hard to go back.

In Origin lunge attacks are now useful, whirlwind is no longer the be-all end-all magic attack AND you can still do weapon attacks during the animation, enemies are more varied and have much more interesting attack patterns, and the 3D bosses are way more dynamic in their movement and patterns and usually involve platforming on their bodies to reach weak spots. And there are three characters you can play, though I only played the Aldol clone Yunica.

But in Felghana you get vastly superior music, a better difficulty curve that presents the powers at a more digestible pace, a better story with shorter cutscenes, no Crash to Desktop at the final boss, and a protagonist who actually looks like a knight whose sword shield and armor are proportionally sized instead of Pippy Longstocking wielding a battleaxe half the size of her body with woolen mittens.

[Sumez]

Oh, Origin is a Windows only game. That means I don't have it. I bought everything I could gulp up for the PSP though. I tend to mix up Seven with Origin as those are the only two I haven't played. I thought they were similar in style actually, but I'm glad to hear there are more games like Felghana, which was a HUGE improvement on Ys 6.

[Mischief Maker]

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

No Man's Sky just got a bug update and is on sale this week. If you're thinking of taking the plunge, save your money.

The engine still has horribly unstable framerates going from 60 down into the teens at random throughout the game. They've tried to sort of mitigate it by adding motion blur Shadow of the Colossus-style. The planets are slightly better looking, but still for the most part boring with awful looking grass textures populated 90% by rats with tyrannosaurus heads who just hop around in circles aimlessly. It's nice to be able to board freighters now, but unless you're prepared to grind tens of millions of credits to access the interior decorating minigame, you'll find that they're just as samey as the space stations.

SAVE YOUR MONEY!

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

whirlwind is no longer the be-all end-all magic attack

To nitpick (I more or less agree with your overall point, though), I felt it was really the earth magic that stood out as the strongest in Felghana. Its invincibility frames are indispensable. I feel like it was the standout best move in pretty much every boss fight past the point you receive it. Yunica's equivalent lightning spell was definitely more balanced (and less fun).

I think the big thing that puts Felghana over Origin to me is just that Felghana has better, harder standard enemies. The enemies aren't especially great by action game standards in either title, but I felt Felghana's do a better job of keeping you engaged.

[juonryu2nd]

The Legend of Dark Witch.
Pretty fun Mega Man style game. Curiously enough the powerup system is similar to that of Gradius. A bit rough around the edges design-wise and with a few weird bugs but overall an endearing game, I liked the overall style of Megamari and RKS so this is right up my alley.

[IrishNinja]

closing out Shining Force III scenario 1, and loving Yakuza 6's demo!

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Been playing Half Minute Hero: The Second Coming near exclusively since I got it in the Steam Autumn Sale. I did play some of the first game because I found a group to get the friends list achievements for it letting me finally finish that one's achievement list.


I've finished the story , most of the titles(only need the Infinite Battle Hard one to finish getting the achievements), and have gotten under the target time for all levels on Normal Time Attack.


Something I really dislike about Time Attack in this one is that unlike the first game, you're allowed to bring equips, party members, and other stuff from later parts of the game, which ends up making earlier levels pretty much equip OP gear, then rush the boss. Also Hero Castle has all the upgrades that you got in Story Mode, so you don't have to pick up the upgrades again in Time Attack(not that you can)


Another thing I dislike is how some of the levels handle equips. In the story for example level 21 strips you of your gear before entering, and it seemed like that in Time Attack as well. I just could not manage the target time, and it was one of the 2 levels I had to look up the solution to

Spoiler

If you equip the Magma Armor you get in the level before entering the level, it does not remove your equips, so you can bring the rest as overpowered gear and the target time then becomes doable

.

You can do similar thing with missions that require certain items to get to the boss or survive the boss.

The other level I needed a few tips for was the Abyss level.


I'm now working through Time Attack Hard trying to meet the target times there and have managed it in all the Overture and Judgement Missions. Have the Revolution missions outside of the final one since I keep making mistakes and the 3 DLC quests since I haven't done them on Hard yet.

There's a few later levels I'm not looking forward to on Hard, like beating Abyss's 4 minute target time, Hero 3D(3 second time limit, and time runs down in towns on Hard so you have to be even quicker in terms of training and resetting the timer), the 3 Ragnarok DLC levels, and possibly a few others where I barely got the time on Normal since that means I'll need to optimize it more since the target times are the same regardless.


And there's a few levels where I'd beaten my Normal Mode time on Hard despite the time not running in towns on Normal, which means my Normal Mode routes for those ones weren't as good or well executed. Not sure what the optimum formations are for Time Attack, but I switch between the ones that move faster on the field, the + experience ones, or the stat boosting ones.

[atheistgod1999]

Skyrim. I wanted to play the special edition (got it for free, because I already had the original) because it's supposedly better, but how can it be if it can only go up to 60FPS, while the original can go up to at least 144FPS!?!?!? Why can't we have nice things?

EDIT: Turns out Alt+Tabbing and going back to the game removes the limit. Why is it even there in the first place, though?

[null1024]

Guilty Gear X [DC].
Still pretty good overall, even with the XX line and Xrd existing, unlike say, GG1 on PS1.
Playing it, I'm wishing for a bunch of shit XX onward introduced, but hey.

Also, X is probably the most stylish the series has been until Xrd came out, all of the updated backgrounds in XX are weaker looking than they were in X, and then AC doesn't compare visually -- XXAC is a fantastic game and I still find myself playing +R over Xrd, but they sort of dropped the ball stylistically with AC.

and on another note, I'm enjoying the DC controller a lot more than I last remembered it, namely all my inputs are coming out fairly consistently on it
the button spacing still leaves something to be desired

[kaicooper]

House of the Undying Sun

this's really one of the best sci-fi Flight Combat game

[professor ganson]

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS) - interesting srpg so far. The semi-optional stage goals provide a nice challenge.

[Squire Grooktook]

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS) - interesting srpg so far. The semi-optional stage goals provide a nice challenge.

Whoa what, a Valkyrie Profile srpg? Never even heard of this one. Gonna have to look into this. Thanks.

[Immryr]

i've been playing EDF 4.1, which i've been meaning to get round to for ages. what a game! so far i've pretty much been playing solely with the wing diver. can anyone tell me how the fuck you're supposed to play with the fencer? seems like it could be amazing but it feels so alien after using the wing diver.

the only thing i could see being a problem for me with this game is the same thing that made me bored with diablo 3 after a while and that is a problem which seems inherent to this kind of random loot multiple difficulty scaling game. if you have to grind one difficulty level to get better gear to be able to take on the next level, then it can lead to the difficulty always being about the same. as the enemies get exponentially stronger, so do your weapons therefore it's about as hard as before. having said that the combat in this game is more skill based than diablo so maybe it won;t work out like that in this game.