What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[null1024]

Phantasy Star IV [Genesis].

Something seems really odd about its design, especially the short super-cryptic spell names with no way to get a description [like an 80s RPG], even though it's still just as advanced if not more in other non-text related areas [why the hell don't other RPGs have macros, save anywhere except in dungeons, etc] than its contemporaries.

I absolutely adore the comic-style "cutscenes", very stylish and cool.

Also, I do wish I could turn off auto-avoid, I keep walking into things and expecting to stop moving.

[ncc]

EVE Online, because there isn't enough sperging and spaceship nerd drama in my life.

[Mischief Maker]

Phantasy Star IV [Genesis].

Something seems really odd about its design, especially the short super-cryptic spell names with no way to get a description [like an 80s RPG], even though it's still just as advanced if not more in other non-text related areas [why the hell don't other RPGs have macros, save anywhere except in dungeons, etc] than its contemporaries.

I absolutely adore the comic-style "cutscenes", very stylish and cool.

Also, I do wish I could turn off auto-avoid, I keep walking into things and expecting to stop moving.

I dunno, for me Phantasy Star 2 turned out to be the perfect storm of computer RPG and console RPG elements. The dungeons were tough as nails like a computer game, but you weren't screwing around with graph paper, there were no floor spinners or surprise teleporters or "magical darkness" areas. You have a clear zoomed out aerial view at all times and hazard squares are clearly marked. Furthermore, if you don't play the game with the aid of a faq or strategy guide, the time spent lost in the dungeons ELIMINATES the need to grind! There's a reason two of the earliest spells the main character gets are "esacpe dungeon" and "return to town." (HINAS and RYUKA respectively).

I also think memory limitations or whatever worked in the game's favor by only letting the smallest snippets of dialouge into the game. The whole game has this dark feeling of isolation and impending doom that builds and builds to its downbeat ending. If they had the memory to fit in PS4-style cartoon cutscenes they would have certainly ruined it. How could any seriousness survive the introduction of a character like that FUCKING jokester Dezo Priest from PS4?

Phantasy Star 4 was without question superior to Phantasy Star 3, but I still found it a disappointment. Simple dungeons, child protagonist, and to crib from Spoony the BETRAYAL! of bringing Nei back to life. (In case you didn't know, Final Fantasy 7's shocking plot twist was stolen from PS2, which did it better.) Even the excuse that she's a clone of Nei makes no sense because the whole point of Nei in the first game was that she and Neifirst were mistakes and consequently complete social outcasts.

If you have an interest in "challenging" RPGs like Etrian Odyssey or the Dark Spire, give Phantasy Star 2 a try without maps. You'll be pleasantly surprised. Just dive straight into the dungeons instead of grinding, this is NOT Final Fantasy!

[Ed Oscuro]

Beat down a disgusting ogre that eats people whole. Usually that kind of thing bothers me but it was hard not to see some amusement in it. His reign of terror was very brief due to some advice from a jolly fellow in the area who is happily eating tons of food and getting smashed while thinking about an ogre eating other people. The punk (the ogre I mean, although the happy diner was not seen again) went down in a hurry. He appears twice but only killed me once the first time. The first area where you meet him resembles a stylized stomach, vertebrae...and then a twisty red colon thing where you enter the room. The game's starting to repeat its animated cutscenes (we'll see this later with the Harlequin enemy).

Gwonam: "Lupay, the most dangerous of Ganon's minions!"
(wolf-man...person thing...presses a gem to a Koridian's head and turns him into a Moblin pig-man...which howls like a dog...)

Me a while in: Oh great, Harlequin again...we're in for it now boys! Why can't I kill him? BOSS RUSH APPROACHING
A few fruitless experiments with items, all blocked, later: Oh, you just run up to him and hit him repeatedly with your sword...and there's no more appearances from other bosses before Lupay.
Break of puzzlement due to my forgetting I have a rope item.

LUPAY! Huh, how am I gonna beat him? Shit falling from the ceiling means I don't have a lot of time to figure this out...even his head seems invincible. Wait, my shield just reflected his shots back into him...and he exploded. Well done then. Also, Lupay was a woman.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Their Wild Guns article is actually really, really good, but like a surprising number of other web commentaries on the game it thinks you build super meter by killing enemies (instead of shooting down their bullets).

All three of the submitted guides for Wild Guns on GameFAQs mention the vulcan cannon, but forget to mention explicitly (as far as I can tell from skimming them) that you need to shoot down enemy bullets to charge the vulcan. One even simply says "As you fire your gun, this fills." :/ One of the reviewers does actually mention you gain meter via shooting bullets, though.

Shame too, because knowing how to charge it is really helpful, as is knowing how to not charge it so you can preserve it for a boss fight (it's actually kind of tough to avoid shooting down bullets at some points).

[CIT]

Popful Mail, Mega CD

Highly enjoyable, brainless little game. Just the thing I need right now.

[BIL]

All three of the submitted guides for Wild Guns on GameFAQs mention the vulcan cannon, but forget to mention explicitly (as far as I can tell from skimming them) that you need to shoot down enemy bullets to charge the vulcan. One even simply says "As you fire your gun, this fills." :/ One of the reviewers does actually mention you gain meter via shooting bullets, though.

Shame too, because knowing how to charge it is really helpful, as is knowing how to not charge it so you can preserve it for a boss fight (it's actually kind of tough to avoid shooting down bullets at some points).

Indeed, I'll often bomb a bullet-spewing enemy if I don't want to risk triggering a Vulcan that'll come in handy for the next area. I definitely remember looking up Gamefaqs when I first tried WG out, thinking the Vulcan just charged at a painfully slow rate, but it soon became apparent once the bullets really started flying that they're its source.

[Ed Oscuro]

Ganon 1 (due to getting through the whole dungeon in one life, then getting hit by his fast five-shot spread right away before I could move away), me 1
Zelda still won't kiss Link.
I propose the game should be renamed "Link Doesn't Like Fat Girls."

Nice thing about the game is that you don't need to beat a miniboss more than once when you go through an area - it stays dead (this works for the re-appearances of Harlequin and Militron, at least).

Bad thing - once you beat the game and view the short ending cutscene, it drops you right back at the beginning of the game. Saving at that point will wipe your progress. I didn't care to see anything again (I had max rupees and almost max items) and I knew it was too much to expect some kind of New Game + mode, so it's no hardship, but I can't disprove inter-game saves, not that they were likely.

I realized that Zelda and Link, on the game box and manual covers, look pretty much exactly like they do in Link to the Past art, and apparently the recently-released Hyrule Historia shows the exact image, in black and white and with her right arm in a different position, as LttP concept art: link (to Zelda, I mean; other images from that book are here). Unfortunately behind them are a collage of the fucked-up characters of the game. They look even worse for Wand of Gamelon than they did for Faces of Evil...

[null1024]

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker [GC].

Just, just started. Immensely pretty.
Can't say too much, because I just got the sword and shield.

and I can already see myself enjoying this more than OOT

[Ed Oscuro]

So far, Wand of Gamelon is really uneven. The first place I went to (although my innate sense told me to go to the biggest city, which would've been a better choice) has all of two huts, and most of the area map is dedicated to a winding path pigs will chase you down (and the damn swine won't fall to power sword shots at their level, since they're a hair too short).

The city with the trader is fairly interesting though, and well-realized. It has a lot of variety and a few interesting ways to get about. Game seems rather more aggressive than Link as far as enemy respawns are concerned, but maybe being able to fire the power sword at all health levels / having a lot of health spoiled me.

So far I've beaten one boss by throwing a green cape over him (it's a "magic shroud" and he was a mummy organist who wanted to enslave the living).

[ncc]

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker [GC].

Just, just started. Immensely pretty.
Can't say too much, because I just got the sword and shield.

and I can already see myself enjoying this more than OOT

Wind Waker is probably my favorite Zelda game. Unfortunately Zelda games don't give me the same sort of Dopamine-to-the-spine pleasure reaction that they do for others, so I never finished it; Or any other Zelda game for that matter.

[ratikal]

Run Escape on a 2006 private server. Please send help.

[BIL]

Hell yeah, after a week or so's on-off trying, finally broke 2mil (edit: doh! I mean 200K!) in Wild Guns' opening stage! The game's long-term scoring is totally broken by boss milking and counterstopping (to no real harm - much like Gun.Smoke it's all about stylish, authoritative killin'), but Carson City is a great caravan-style score attack.








Damn straight I use Annie. ;] Her double-jump's height is really useful for misdirecting targeted shots and the lack of horizontal range when diving is a good thing, I find. Better a short controlled dive than Clint's greater tendency to roll right into something fatal. Has to be the black dress (X button) though.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Damn straight I play as Annie. ;] Her double-jump is really useful for misdirecting targeted shots and the lack of horizontal reach when diving is a good thing, I find. Better a short controlled dive than Clint's greater tendency to roll right into something fatal.

I remember posting a thread on GFs asking if there was a general consensus as to which character was better (no responses, no surprise). I shouldn't be surprised to see someone on this forum interested in the more technical details in this game! Annie always seemed to me to be the better character, particularly due to the roll. During the final boss fight especially, Clint's roll will send him in front of one of the turrets, whereas Annie's is short enough to avoid doing so (and it's generally easier to control jumping, which she excels at, since you can change direction or stop moving when you doublejump).

[null1024]

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time [PS2].

Not nearly as pretty as FFXII [or even FFX], but this is much closer to how I was hoping FFXII's battle system was.
And it's already better than any other Star Ocean I've played.

Probably gonna ditch FFXII and play this and Wind Waker over the weekend.


also, the Tales of Phantasia influence is still amazingly strong, three games, three system generations, and however many years later

[spadgy]

Forza Horizons, which I'm really pleasantly surprised by (though at 25% completion, I'm slightly aware it is just starting to feel a tiny, tiny bit repetetive (I think just it's sheer size means, as a driving game, that's inevitable).

I also just got my copy of Metal Gear Rising: Revengence, so I guess that's my planned productive day screwed.

[KAI]

Kinnikuman Muscle Grand Prix 2 Tokumori
Excellent port of the System 256 arcade game, my friends are loving it.


Kinniku Buster!!

[Ed Oscuro]

Wand of Gamelon is much more obnoxious to play than Faces of Evil.

The damn swamp...oh shit. There's nominally two routes through each of the swamp's screens - through treetops or through the water. Water doesn't work well because the crocodiles (yes, you can stand on them) tend to submerge a few inches for a second along their route, and this is enough to make you fall off the stage (perfectly sensible). On the second part the crocodiles both sink where their paths cross, making it damn hard - if it is possible - to get through. Can't use a rope while on their backs to grab a tree limb. So you're best off ignoring them almost entirely.

Then there's a nasty forest level which is more of the same but with hordes of tiny anklebiters instead of deadly water. At the end of this area's second screen, there's a really obnoxious woman who flashes her panties at Zelda. Making things worse, there is no way to get from her to the area exit, without dying. If you miss the jump over to the higher path with the exit, you'll have to die and try again!

Zelda and Link would be powerless against hostage takers, because of their stupid "smart swords." The smart sword will always target a friend over an enemy to trigger a cutscene, even if they're both occupying the same space. It won't hit the enemy at all. Thanks, technology!

loaf of bread

So hard to say away from those carbs...

What a waste of time this is. It just makes flying arpagos (basically mini-pterodactyls) fly at the bread, which can make shooting / hitting them easier (no jump attacks required) but that's easily a third of the fun of the game. I thought of using it as a puzzle item to lure an arpagos back into a tower for a feather quest item, but of course it doesn't work. You can slay thousands of the beasts but Zelda is too stupid to pluck a feather out of their hides. Nope, gotta plow through at least one more as-yet undiscovered area (yeah, I spoiled this part of the game and I'm glad I did) before we can find one. Also, you can carry 99 loaves of bread...the baker gives you ONE each time you visit him. Hmm, I wonder if he has a new cutscene if you max loaves...

[null1024]

Sonic 2 [Genesis].

Was going so well, and then I found myself stuck on those yellow springs in Metropolis Zone. Movement is locked [this is the worst thing about the Genesis Sonic games, the control lock after jumping out of roll, nothing good comes of it and it's at odds with the rest of the game and results in shit like this].

Sonic CD has the sense to have removed control locks. It's the only 16-bit Sonic to have done that.

fuck this stage too, it's 3 acts long and I can't stand any bit of it

Hell, inescapable parts in Sonic 3+K aren't as bad, because when you hit reset, you can just load your save.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time [PS2].

Bosses die too quickly. I heard there's a huge difficulty spike on disc 2, but fuck, last 2 bosses I fought died in under a minute. Also, I wish there were better AI options, like "heal people and attack sometimes" or something. And I really don't like how you can't directly select spells on a character, the easiest way is to pause, switch to that character, unpause and then pause again really quickly, and then select the spell. What's the point of stopping me from direct-selecting it anyway?


[EDIT] because bumping would be silly

Tales of Eternia [PSP]. Had to restart thanks to my PSP deciding to completely wreck my SD card [the PSP did fall, but I'm wondering how the SD card though it only had 32MB of space avaliable to format]. At least I got a reason to get a 32GB one.
And I'm reading all of Meredy's text.

"It is a little plain..." - upon getting normal clothes.

It's stupid easy to read [it's straight English with a Wingdings-y font], except for the fact that half the characters look the same but with different angled hooks... blah.
I'm not sure if you ever completely understand her in-game, where I was when my card fried, she'd still say things in untranslated Melnics long after you had those translator earring things.

and I need a new PSP, this one doesn't feel like turning on sometimes

[KAI]

Gundam Seed Destiny: Rengou VS Z.A.F.T. II Plus and Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex.
Animu games sunday.

[Mortificator]

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands. It's better than any of the gold box games.

[shmuppyLove]

DmC and Bioshock (the first one!)

[null1024]

Virtual On [PS2].

Bah, I'm still not as good at this version as I am on the Saturn one [with its more accurate homing attacks and shorter stun time after dashing]. 3CC'd to the end, which means my time was shit [using standard 2 rounds per match].

One odd thing I noticed that's different between this version and the arcade -- when fighting Jag on the PS2, you do a full set of rounds. When fighting him at the arcade, it's a one match affair, no matter how many rounds the machine is set to do.

[CStarFlare]

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time [PS2].

Bosses die too quickly. I heard there's a huge difficulty spike on disc 2, but fuck, last 2 bosses I fought died in under a minute.

There's a couple that come to mind, but really they don't seem to have rebalanced the game much when they added chain combos. Side Kick and Flying Guillotine are enough to get you past the end of the game. It's much more interesting on higher difficulties.

Getting 300 battle trophies on SO3 was one of those things I put some serious effort into but never actually did. Spent some time trying to do SO4's as well, but they went off the deep end and doing those would require like 500 hours of pure grinding. I pulled myself away before I wasted too much time.

I've been working my way through the Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim. I still just want to play Oblivion again, but I feel like I should spend less time living in the past so I'm sticking with Skyrim.

[Ed Oscuro]

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands. It's better than any of the gold box games.

How does Wake of the Ravager (the one I have) hold up to it?

[CMoon]

Devil May Cry 3. I never quite connected with it the first (and yes, second time) round. This time it seems brilliant. Beyond the absolutely amazing game mechanics, it seems capcom must have used a time machine to make DMC3 Dante a complete mockery of DMC(5) Dante. I cannot think of the new Dante yelling out his typical 'fuck you' without imagining DMC3 Dante riding around on a missile going 'woohoo!' Sorry DMC5 Dante, you have been served.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Devil May Cry 3. I never quite connected with it the first (and yes, second time) round. This time it seems brilliant.

Sounds like the history I had with Viewtiful Joe. The third time's a charm. DMC3 clicked immediately, though. Not that I've finished either.
Honestly, I can't believe anybody's done playing Capcom games from that era.

[blackoak]

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands. It's better than any of the gold box games.

I love that game, really thought it was special at the time. Played it many times over. Wake of the Ravager had a lot of bugs, but it was good too.

[Ruldra]

When I tried the Bayonetta demo years ago, it kinda rub me the wrong way and dismissed it entirely. Someone in another forum was mentioning how great the game is so decided to re-download the demo and give it another shot, this time trying to learn the moves and perform well. Despite the over-sexualization bit, the game is growing on me, feels like I'm playing DMC3 with a female protagonist. Will try to trade one of my old games for a copy of Bayonetta.

Other than that, played a bit of MotoGP 10/11. First superbike simulator I ever played in my life, feels different from playing car simulators but I'm getting the hang of it.

[spadgy]

In spite of the over-sexulisation, which normally puts me off a game a great deal, somehow in the strange world of Bayonetta it seemed to fit, and I really adored that game...