What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[ZacharyB]

Final Fantasy III is good. NES or DS remake. NES has more memory for more enemies, DS can only do 3 or 4, due to the 3D and animations and whatever else. But DS rebalanced all of the classes, so you can take any class to the end of the game. This is more fun, because it opens up the possibilities for party configurations. The classes are just simpler; you can't take elements from one class and place them on another, like in FF5 and others that came afterwards. After going through it a few times, it's fun to go through it without using a class that specializes in White Magic.

[WelshMegalodon]

You ever do that four job fiesta? apologies if we've already spoken about it.

I managed to beat Omega with a two berserkers, thief and bard. I used a weird stunlock loop and beat it that way.
The kind of shit i'd never figure out without the internet. Shinryu was way too hard though, i gave up there.

Also man the game is cool but seven playthroughs? jesus..
what other j/RPGs do you consider worthwhile? Things similar to ff5.

The Four Job Fiesta looks interesting, but I haven't attempted one. If your upload is any indication, using a party of two Berserkers and a Bard is as tedious as it sounds.

I do think the Berserker Job is a bit underrated, especially with it taking so little time to master.

As for seven playthroughs, my lack of a manual led me to waste ABP on useless jobs my first time through, so the other runs were in part an attempt to make up for that. The discovery of unconventional boss strategies was also a factor - a number of them can be cheesed, including the final boss. Throw in all the items that can be missed and one can easily find oneself on his third or fourth playthrough.

I hear Bravely Default is essentially a modern FFV, but I haven't purchased a console in over ten years and Vagrant Story art guy is overrated, so you'll have to look into that yourself.

Final Fantasy III is good. NES or DS remake. NES has more memory for more enemies, DS can only do 3 or 4, due to the 3D and animations and whatever else.

Oh, I remember you from the last time I brought up FFIII.

But DS rebalanced all of the classes, so you can take any class to the end of the game. This is more fun, because it opens up the possibilities for party configurations.

I'm afraid I'm rather unfairly averse to entertaining that claim, thanks to a certain review of FFV that I can't seem to dig up at the moment, but let's agree to disagree.

[kaicooper]

Freespace 2

[Shoryukev]

NES - Ninja Gaiden

Almost done with this one, I just have to really study the last section before the final boss room so I can crush Jaquio's 2nd form without having to worry about having a tiny sliver of health when I get there. That boss-loop is brutal when you die.

SNES - Actraiser

This one is kinda interesting. The god-simulation sections are kinda odd....but fun at the same time.

Genesis - Tiny Toon - Buster's hidden treasure

I have so many childhood memories of this one. The music is fantastic (16-bit era Konami rules), I never beaten it as a kid but it seems to be fairly easy so I should probably be able to plow through it.

[Leandro]

Just finished Dead Space. Great Resident Evil-like game

[Marc]

Lots Resi 0 Remake. Possibky my favourite of the series, more focused than the sprawling and occasionally obtuse original.

About ready for the 1CC on metal Slug. Not a huge accomplishment I know, but one I've always meant to spend a bit of time on. Making Stage 5 boss regularly, but I believe the firnal stage is supposed to be a swine.

Getting g destroyed by level 5 on Contra arcade.

Started another playthrough of Duke 3D. My favourite single player campaign of all time. Can't wait to try the new episode.

[Ruldra]

Just finished Dead Space. Great Resident Evil-like game

Already? Took me over a month to beat it.

At first I had a lot of trouble managing my ammo, seemed like I never had enough. Then I noticed that the game tends to generate ammo for the weapons you have equipped. So if you're carrying 4 weapons, you'll end up having little ammo for all of them. Once I realized that, I restarted and only used the Plasma Cutter and Line Gun. Never had ammo problems again. Also helps that the Line Gun's mine can kill multiple enemies with one shot.

Also, if you're willing to backtrack often, you can abuse the stasis recharge stations to use stasis in every fight.

[Leandro]

Just finished Dead Space. Great Resident Evil-like game

Already? Took me over a month to beat it.

At first I had a lot of trouble managing my ammo, seemed like I never had enough. Then I noticed that the game tends to generate ammo for the weapons you have equipped. So if you're carrying 4 weapons, you'll end up having little ammo for all of them. Once I realized that, I restarted and only used the Plasma Cutter and Line Gun. Never had ammo problems again. Also helps that the Line Gun's mine can kill multiple enemies with one shot.

Also, if you're willing to backtrack often, you can abuse the stasis recharge stations to use stasis in every fight.

I guess you played on the Hard difficulty? I played on Medium, had a bit of problem with ammo sometimes (on a specific boss I ended up with zero ammo for all my weapons, but still managed to beat him using the kinesis module), though by end game I was fine. I noticed some weapons have very frequent drops, like the Ripper, to the point of annoyance, like the game doesn't want to drop anything else besides the ammo for that weapon.
I just replayed the beggining of the game to see the unlockable costume and ended up playing a huge chunk afterwards, game is too addicting, I think I'll install the second one now.

[BIL]

About ready for the 1CC on metal Slug. Not a huge accomplishment I know, but one I've always meant to spend a bit of time on. Making Stage 5 boss regularly, but I believe the firnal stage is supposed to be a swine.

The difficulty curves of Metal Slugs 1/X/3 are consistently, hugely skewed towards their final stages. You'll probably be working on 1CCing each's respective Final Mission long after no-missing everything to that point.

It's my only real issue with them. It makes the 1CC/1LC overly trying, where something pitch-perfect like Daimakaimura is a deadly gauntlet from start to finish. Easily forgiven though... few other action games pack such viscerally gratifying destruction, and the immense GRAFX factor don't hurt either.

[kaicooper]

Freespace 2 STAR WARS THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY Mod

[mamboFoxtrot]

re: Odin Sphere

Yeah hard does make things a bit more aggressive IIRC, it's noticeable

haha, yeah, it does. I put it on hard mode and immediately got raked by Goblins. Though, after a bit more playing, I find that the AI difference isn't TOO severe. Things actually doing damage is way more important, even if getting hit can be a rarity outside of boss fights given some of the ridiculous combat options.
Though, even with all that, I still can't really imagine doing a no-item run of this, mostly because of how much damn health bosses have (even with juggling cheese), in addition to their frequent summoning of entire mobs of enemies. It feels like it pretty much mandates attack items if you don't want the battle to drag on too much.

I'm on Mercedes now, and... this is different. It's odd to me, though, that she has this flight gimmick, but you need to be on the ground to recharge your attack meter. I'm also surprised at how little difference the Quick Reload skill makes I guess later on down the road when you have some better spells and access to Quick Recharge potions it'll get better, but for now this feels rather awkward.

[KennyMan666]

re: Odin Sphere

Yeah hard does make things a bit more aggressive IIRC, it's noticeable

haha, yeah, it does. I put it on hard mode and immediately got raked by Goblins. Though, after a bit more playing, I find that the AI difference isn't TOO severe. Things actually doing damage is way more important, even if getting hit can be a rarity outside of boss fights given some of the ridiculous combat options.
Though, even with all that, I still can't really imagine doing a no-item run of this, mostly because of how much damn health bosses have (even with juggling cheese), in addition to their frequent summoning of entire mobs of enemies. It feels like it pretty much mandates attack items if you don't want the battle to drag on too much.

I'm on Mercedes now, and... this is different. It's odd to me, though, that she has this flight gimmick, but you need to be on the ground to recharge your attack meter. I'm also surprised at how little difference the Quick Reload skill makes I guess later on down the road when you have some better spells and access to Quick Recharge potions it'll get better, but for now this feels rather awkward.

If you think Leifthrasir Mercedes is iffy to play, let me tell you about original Odin Sphere Mercedes. The POW meter is a new thing for Leifthrasir, in the original it was "Stamina", which was spent by attacking so you could only do a couple combos then you had to recharge. Mercedes had "Ammo" instead of Stamina, which worked pretty much like her POW bar does in Leifthrasir, except I'm pretty sure didn't last as long, and it didn't auto-recharge like the POW bar does when you walk on the ground - instead, you had to go through the reload animation. Which happened automatically whenever you were standing still on the ground with her when the meter wasn't full. And it couldn't be canceled.

Mercedes absolutely fucking sucked in original Odin Sphere and made all of the third book a completely horrible drag to play. With the skills (which, of course, was a thing that didn't exist in the original) and the new POW system and the fact that you can cancel the reload animation, she's so much more comfortable to play it's ridiculous. Mercedes was the first time I had to dial down to Easy in the original, if I recall correctly. Conversely, Leifthrasir I've been playing entirely on Hard from the start and at least partway through Cornelius I started going for S-ranking every stage on the first try. It's been going well, it was really only with Gwendolyn I went back afterwards to get some S-ranks because I hadn't decided I wanted to do that yet. With the combat skills, I've found myself rarely having any reason to use attack potions and items...

I'm currently in the endgame myself. Gonna max out all skills for all characters before getting the true ending.

Other than that, I've played Half-Genie Hero. Beat it yesterday. Nice game, fantastic music.

[Squire Grooktook]

I still have nightmares about the early Mercedes Vs Oswald battle in original Odin Sphere. Brrrrr

[KennyMan666]

I still have nightmares about the early Mercedes Vs Oswald battle in original Odin Sphere. Brrrrr

That was the very spot I dialed down to Easy from Normal because no matter what I did I could not damage him faster than he used healing potions.

[Squire Grooktook]

I managed to brute force it without setting it to easy somehow. I don't even remember. I just know it was awful.

[BulletMagnet]

Other than that, I've played Half-Genie Hero. Beat it yesterday. Nice game, fantastic music.

The one piece of that I'd protest over is the main vocal theme song: it's both laughably cheesy and an absolutely merciless earworm, which means I don't want it in my head but it's constantly there.

[atheistgod1999]

Looks like I now have to beat Odin Sphere on the highest difficulty.

[KennyMan666]

Other than that, I've played Half-Genie Hero. Beat it yesterday. Nice game, fantastic music.

The one piece of that I'd protest over is the main vocal theme song: it's both laughably cheesy and an absolutely merciless earworm, which means I don't want it in my head but it's constantly there.

What, Dance Through the Danger rules and while having it as the first stage BGM was a positive enough surprise, I was definitely hoping it would return while fighting the final boss, at least when having qualified for the true ending. But oh well.

[mamboFoxtrot]

If you think Leifthrasir Mercedes is iffy to play, let me tell you about original Odin Sphere Mercedes...
{Tales of Horror and Damnation}

Jesus fuck. Sometimes while playing the game I think about whether or not I should try out Classic mode sometime, but then I read stuff like this and I'm like "yeah there was a reason I didn't play the original". Maybe I should anyways, just to truly appreciate what a massive overhaul this remake really is!
Also, re: getting e-z S ranks even on Hard mode: it's because the system is totally borked. Basically all that really matters is getting a high combo at least once, because not only does that combo contribute to the score, you also get bonus points for achieving certain combo thresholds. I fought a mid-boss and went through every healing item in my inventory and still got an S Rank, but I screwed up a one-an-done thing and had to reload, and got a B-Rank on that mid-boss upon refighting it despite not taking nearly as much damage or using as many attack potions, purely because I didn't rack up a good combo. There are some fights where you can basically secure an S Rank by just chucking one Whirlwind.

e: and yeah, without having played Oswald or Velvet's books yet, I'm just going to say that Cornelius might be the most broken mofo in the game. I mean, ridiculous combo potential with the flying spin attack + his POW skills, and then broken-ass Dizzy Spark, Lightning Orb Shield, Thundercloud, etc... the dude's ridiculous.

[Mischief Maker]

Conquest of Elysium 4

A total improvement on the previous title in the more singleplayer-focused cousin of the Dominions 4X games.

Imagine if a complete madman made a sequel to Warlords 3 without any concern about balance.

[wgogh]

Freespace 2 STAR WARS THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY Mod

WOW. Didn't knew that was a thing!

Btw, finished Killer 7 (very good!), so now I'm going for Flower, Sun & Rain (Funny name since I've got together with another DS game called Moon.)

[ryu]

Final Fantasy XV.

Got it as a birthday present. Wouldn't have bought it by myself just yet because I was still playing Persona 5. Started it anyways because I was curious and consider it to be a change of pace from playing the same game day after day.

My initial impression isn't the best. Not because of the character designs, premise and lack of a story, but because the gameplay disappoints me. All I've been doing is running around and killing monsters for fetch quests - which by itself isn't too bad. I didn't mind it in Xenoblade or FFXIV. Problem in this game is that the map is too flat (at least so far), so there's nothing about it that would make it interesting or fun to explore. Unlike for example the first area in Xenoblade which I spend hours enjoyably exploring, even though there was nothing for me to gain since I wasn't doing any quests at that time. Playing FFXV last night I spend a good quarter hour running around a mountain, only to find out there was no way up. Seems like walking and "exploring" is a waste of time in that game and I'm better off just using fast travel whenever possible....

No idea how the car gimmick is going to show value. There's nothing on the roads so you're forced to constantly hike to the next destination and back to the car if you have business in the wilderness. I can't use chocobos just yet, but those seem to be far more useful for getting around.

I find the combat pretty confusing. Still haven't figured out under what circumstances pressing square allows you to cancel-dodge. Seems to be whenever the game tells you via an on-screen prompt, but it might also work when holding square. In any case combat doesn't have a good flow to it and I find myself just pressing buttons without really knowing what I'm doing. :/

Hopefully the game picks up for me, because if the whole game plays like this I'm going to be bored of it very soon.

[KennyMan666]

Jesus fuck. Sometimes while playing the game I think about whether or not I should try out Classic mode sometime, but then I read stuff like this and I'm like "yeah there was a reason I didn't play the original". Maybe I should anyways, just to truly appreciate what a massive overhaul this remake really is!

Yyyyyyeah. Original Odin Sphere, while absolutely gorgeous on PS2 and a very gret example of good storytelling through a game, was kind of janky in the gameplay department. Combat was sort of stiff, with each character only having like 2-3 different things to do, and having to fill up on stamina constantly. And everything about Mercedes. The alchemy system was also completely different - where in Leifthrasir the number on the material just indicates quality of the potion, original Odin Sphere didn't have different numbers on the completed potions, and the material numbers indicated what it'd mix into. So a material #1 and a carroteer would become a different potion than a material #2 and a carroteer. Maury's Touring Restaurant is a completely new thing for Leifthrasir, in the original the Pooka kitchen and café needed both coins and ingredients, and Gwendolyn didn't get access to Pooka village until her epilogue chapter. I never completed the endgame (I guess it's not much spoilers to say there's a sixth and final book where you get to use all characters) in the original, because even with the difficulty on Easy I couldn't defeat the second boss with any of the characters - the first one I could only deal with with Velvet because I had gotten her HP up enough, and I didn't feel like going back grinding up everybody else's HP to stand a chance.

...ironically, going back to grind with everyone is exactly what I'm doing now, to Master everybody's everything on the skills screen before I take on the final book in the manner that leads to the true ending. Not because I need it, but just because I can. Though, of course, it's much less pain to do in a game where the combat is actually fun... and the hot tip for farming phozons is to stock up on pure cacao through farming the epilogue chapter (sell any ruewort ad baromett seeds that drop for cash, 'cause you don't need them anymore), drop 32 of them on the ground (you can't have more items on the ground in one area) and pop a level 9 Naturalize. Each cacao becomes 23 phozons, so that's 736 phozons for you. Cacao is easily the most cost-effective, a ruewort pops into 40 phozons but for the price of one ruewort in the shops you can buy 3-4 cacaos. The ruewort, I found, was better used in the restaurant anyway until all passive abilities were acquired - sometimes you get a ruewort instead of a cacao as a chest reward, where you're supposed to get cacao.

Anyway.

All those things said, I still consider the original Odin Sphere a good game, 'cause when it's good it's REALLY good and I even considered it better than Muramasa (which I played first) at those points - but Muramasa never got as incredibly frustrating as OG Odin Sphere does when it gets really bad, so I've always been considering Muramasa the better game of the two. Leifthrasir might very well be the best Vanillaware game... but I'm waiting with my final judgment on that until I've played Muramasa Rebirth too.

[konmai]

I preferred original Odin Sphere's stiff, slower combat and item management. Hard mode original OS was frustrating but infinitely more tight and satisfying. I was disappointed to see Leifthrasir taking after Muramasa so much. Loose, flashy combat doesn't interest me and I feel putting it in Odin Sphere takes away the game's character tbh.

[Squire Grooktook]

If (unlike me) you were aware of that fact that leveling up psyher level increases damage, Odin Sphere Original wasn't that hard.

Of course, that just makes it grindy as fuck rather than extending out the end game bosses of each chapter to horrific lengths.

Overall a pretty massively flawed game. I like it for the story and atmosphere TBH, really takes me on a fantasy journey, and there are SOME gameplay merits. But overall it's one of those games I can never recommend without a massive list of reservations.

[konmai]

After Gwendolyn's story I decided to do the others by exclusively leveling up psypher, using the Potion mix to heal and not eating anything. It's still hard in the sense that you don't have a lot of room for mistakes and things that do continuous damage to you are pretty bad.

The gameplay merits are all in how unconventional it is. I played it, dropped it, played Muramasa, tried to play it again and in the end I found that clusterfuck more likable than Muramasa's formula.

[apatheticTurd]

I've 1cc'ed Galaxy Force 2. This was a clear I've been aiming at for a while (and came frustratingly close to on a lot of occassions) so I'm very happy about it.

[BIL]

Nice, that's an intense run if I remember correctly. Never seriously attempted it myself but it felt like it'd be a pretty tight squeeze. Looking forward to digging into the PS2 port someday.

[kaicooper]

Freespace 2 STAR WARS THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY Mod

WOW. Didn't knew that was a thing!

Btw, finished Killer 7 (very good!), so now I'm going for Flower, Sun & Rain (Funny name since I've got together with another DS game called Moon.)

Killer 7 is awesom surreal game

Freespace 2 STAR WARS mod is awesom

[Leandro]

Playing Dead Space 2... It was worth playing the first one before this

Spoiler

Revisiting the ship from the first game was handled awesomely in this one, best part of the game thus far, though I loved the children's sector from early in the game