[The Crotch]

 

Can't wait to play Bioshock Infinite 2.

[panzerfaust]

I'm craving man-sized ventilation ducts so I will probably pick up Deus Ex.

 

Stranger of Sword City is currently a brick wall right for me right now. The current boss types are suddenly unbeatable, and now it's just a matter of grinding.

[Krymner]

Ugh. Grinding. That's all I do in Persona 1. I'm amazed the series lived to see sequels. I mean, there are aspects of the game that I do like, but the constant grind negates all the good stuff. I'm glad I'm just going for the normal "good" ending, 'cause I hear the snow-queen path is even more grindy.

[themaster20000]

I had the same experience playing Persona 2: Innocent Sin. Good story and characters,and aged in everything else. The worse being the demon negotiation system,which is amusing for a couple hours and then becomes this monotonous chore.

[Krymner]

The demon negotiation isn't too bad in Persona 1. Leveling up the Personas is what takes so long to do, because you have to use them to level them up. They get their first couple of spells easy, but it's those last-tier spells that become tedious to obtain.

 

I'm near the end of the game now tho. I just pushed thru a big chunk of it as quick as I could, and now I'm kinda under-leveled for the final dungeon. I've just been sticking with the same Personas for awhile now because I have a good array of spells, but now I need to fuse some new ones and level those up for the final boss run. One last grind session, then end game.

[JEKKI]

awwww yeay I'm bumpin threads!!

 

I finally beat Fire Emblem Awakening!

 

it was the first game I ever bought for 3DS, stopped playing halfway thru, really wanted to play FE again since the new one was coming out, but ended up not getting the new one since I was unable to get the Special Edition, so I just played the old one again!

 

restarted the game tho, didnt continue my save. Took me roughly 35 hours to beat.

 

played Classic mode which means a few of my dudes died, including Frederick who's like the strongest character in the game until the end where he's the weakest and I'm like wtf why do I keep bringing him into missions? Dude died like on the 2nd to last stage and I was like yo eff that guy he shoulda died long ago anyways.

 

Weird thing about character deaths tho is they're not actually dead... like some of them still show up in cutscenes O_o One of them even married Chrom...

 

and then I had no idea about the whole children system, so had I known I woulda played the game much differently at the beginning =P I was able to get some kids based on the characters I was using tho so all is good there.

 

and the cool thing is, when some ppl die, you just stick to the ones that work... like my roster had all these weak guys on it that I never used, but the ones I were using pretty much steamrolled through the entire game once you start Master Sealing and pairing them up 

 

so yup! super fun game! not gonna bother with DLC tho, but I am really looking forward to getting my hands on FE Fates one day!

 

except now I have SMT Apocolypse, Shiren for the Vita, Tokyo Mirage Session, Xenoblade X which I saved right before chapter 5 story mission, I bought DQ7 too, and gonna buy a PS4 on black friday for FF15 and Persona,

 

I also wanna play the new Phoenix Wright and my stack of Vita visual novels.

 

it's impossible to get to all of these lol, but whatever it's a good problem to have =P

[RKasa]

Yay, the thread's alive again! I've been seeing you playing Awakening lately, JEKKI, so congrats on beating it! As you've probably seen, I'm going through Ace Attorney 6; currently in the middle of the (very crazy) third case.

RPG-wise, I'm in the middle of Fantasy Life, but I've found it... surprisingly dull. I don't know what it is with me and Level-5 games lately, but they just aren't grabbing me; played the first Professor Layton earlier this year and wasn't too impressed with that one either.

 

After i beat those two, my next RPG (well, game in general, really) will probably be Pokemon Sun, once that comes out. I too have bought the DQVII remake, but as long as it's supposed to be, I don't think I'll have time to dig into it until after the holidays. It's been forever since I've played a DQ, though, and I've been getting the itch to dig into one, so it probably won't sit around in my backlog for too long.

[The Crotch]

Characters that are at least semi-important to the plot often don't die in FE games, they merely get permanently injured. In Awakening, none of the first-generation women totally "die"; in Fates, none of the first-gen men die.

 

I think.

 

Plugging away at FE Fates: Revelations right now, myself.

[Draekon]

I need to go back through Fates at some point. I'm very slowly playing Dragon Quest VII right now. It's a huge improvement over the original Playstation version to where I don't feel like I need a guide to progress anymore. There was one 'piece' that I had trouble finding but it was me complicating a something that was blatantly obvious. I'll probably put that on hold and play some Dragon Quest Builders once I get it this week though as the game is more of a slog than 4-6 as well as 9. 8 also had its slog moments for me, but I didn't feel it as badly as I do in 7.

 

Other than that, I had trouble re-playing Pillars of Eternity on the highest difficulty. Not because of the difficulty as I could get by anything with a bit of strategy, but because I just don't find the difficulty fun. I'll probably restart it on the second highest difficulty sometime down the road and finally make it through the expansions.

 

I suppose I also beat Trails of Cold Steel II recently, but there's not much to say about that without me writing an essay. The Trails series is an investment for sure. Why can't more games have an expansive world and lore like this series?

[The Crotch]

Fates has some of the best gameplay of any FE I've played but holy shit, the writing - and Conquest is really the worst offender here - is some absolute dogshit. "Three technically different games branching out from one key decision" is a neat gimmick but they really strained to write a game based around one of those branches just being god damn nonsense.

[Krymner]

I picked up DQ VII too, but haven't started it yet. It might be awhile before I can get to it, since I want to get thru more of my backlog.

 

But my backlog just get bigger tho. I was recently gifted a PS2 off a buddy of mine, so now I can finally play some of my PS2 RPGs that I never finished, like Tales of Abyss/Legendia, Star Ocean 3, and the SMT: DDS games. I'm gonna try and hunt down Suikoden 4 and 5 now too. Hopefully I can get 5 without having to pay some of the crazy prices I've seen on Ebay.

 

I'm almost finished with Trails in the Sky FC, about halfway thru the fourth chapter now. I want to get thru it and SC before I start the two Trails of Cold Steels.

[Indignate]

You need to wait for the The 3rd to come out later this year and play through that though.

 

And then wait for xseed to somehow get the licenses to translate the 2 7th games cuz I think the PC ports were done by another dev so they have to work with them on that instead or something cuz I doubt they want to localize psp/vita games cuz nobody owns one. Or you can play a fan translation but that sounds illegal I think it would be better if you just learned Japanese.

 

Then I will allow you to play Cold Steels.

[Krymner]

Ain't nobody got time for all that! Geez, my backlog is already big enough...

 

I do like Trails so far tho. I love how the monsters explode into a bunch of sepith stones when you defeat them. The story is good, but I'm not going around talking to everyone like some people do; I'm just focusing upon the quests and stuff pertaining to them.

 

 

Still, if I were to learn Japanese, I wouldn't be wasting time playing these Falcom PSP games when there's Persona 5 to be drooling over. I watched some non-story videos of the combat and other features, and wow, it looks fantastic. I really dig how the characters have both melee weapons and guns, which was a big element of the first Persona game. Sucks that we english speakers gotta wait till February.

[Indignate]

Ain't nobody got time for all that! Geez, my backlog is already big enough...

 

I do like Trails so far tho. I love how the monsters explode into a bunch of sepith stones when you defeat them. The story is good, but I'm not going around talking to everyone like some people do; I'm just focusing upon the quests and stuff pertaining to them.

Yeah, honestly it was too much. There was some neat side stories that the NPC's would go through but I just got really tired of running around each city after every story beat to catch up with everyone, particularly when most of them weren't neat. Dunbar's theory states that I can only really be close to about five people anyways.

[Draekon]

In Trails in the Sky, it's only really worth talking to people who interact with you via main story and sidequest and Estelle's home town (I did this more in SC than FC). When you get to Trails of Cold Steel I & II, there are a lot more named NPCs at your hub that you'll probably want to keep tabs on as well. There aren't many outside of the main "hub" that you'll really want to repeatedly talk to. Not that you'll have much of a chance for multiple conversations anyways.

 

Then there's Anton... Poor Anton. I guess I should say poor Ricky though? He has it the hardest.

[Krymner]

Do you ever get the ability to backtrack in Trails in the Sky? Up till now I've been locked into one region per chapter, and cannot go to any previously-visited regions. I assume this opens up towards the very end, or maybe they save that for SC?

[Draekon]

Not really, no. SC is linear is a similar way, but in one of the later chapters you visit everywhere again. Cold Steel is pretty linear as well in that regard (Except for the hub), but Cold Steel II actually has some non-linearity about it. Story is still linear, but explorable locations aren't exactly.

[Tora Chan]

Anyone have extensive knowledge of the game "Grand Kingdom" for PS4/PS VITA? From the screens shots the game looks beautiful and very immersive, but I wanted to seek other opinions before I buy it

[Draekon]

I never beat it because I got sidetracked by something else. There is a demo on PSN that you can try out the gameplay. The main game is more or less the same with more classes. As for what I didn't like about it is the online portion. It's not particularly fun in my opinion.

 

I may go back to it at some point, but I'm definitely not in a rush to.

[JEKKI]

I hit the 4 hour mark in SMT Apocalypse.

 

this game is so good!

 

so good!

 

pretty much the same as the older one, which I loved. Music is awesome, setting is awesome, game is a ton of fun, definitely has its hooks in me!

 

 

Characters that are at least semi-important to the plot often don't die in FE games, they merely get permanently injured. In Awakening, none of the first-generation women totally "die"; in Fates, none of the first-gen men die.

 

I think.

Story wise I'm not sure anyone dies in the game, then again the overall story in Awakening isnt anything special,

 

but when you beat the game the story snippets just say "Retired" on your dead characters. 

[Indignate]

Hey guys I've been playing ESO.

 

This is where my life is right now.

[The Crotch]

I've tried to stop him but

[Draekon]

...but Tyranny hype?

 

I played ESO closed alpha/beta a little. It was bad. Like really bad. I'd honestly like to play an MMO, but communities in them are a far cry from what they were back when I played Ultima Online from 97/98 to 2002. Well the internet in general for that matter. If I go the smaller more niche MMO route, then it's either full of foreign people (OH GOD BRAZILLIANS) or full of kids less than half my age that honestly scare me. I can't get into WoW anymore even though I still buy the expansion collector editions because... they're pretty boxes and I own them all.

[The Crotch]

I'm looking forward to it. A shorter PoE with heavy Alpha Protocol influence could be good.

[Draekon]

I've been hearing that they're really going to make consequences to to your actions. I just hope they don't monkey paw all the benevolent choices you make. Too many unintended consequences are bad. I'm also fine with good choices having lesser negative consequences and sometimes being the worse option in the short run, but if they do it to every benevolent choice then it'll make being the "good guy" suck.

 

Two more weeks though. Well, unless Xanadu NEXT takes me a long time, then whenever I finish that.

[Krymner]

Finished up Trails in the Sky FC. Wonderful JRPG. Nothing exceptionally ground-breaking gameplay-wise, but what it does it does well. The story is what makes it as good as it is, though.

 

I'm going to take a break for a week or two before jumping into Second Chapter so I don't get burned out on it.

[Draekon]

That's probably a good idea, especially since the second game can run around twice the length. The game transitions into SC really well too with how it handles everything at the beginning. I do have some issues with the games, but Trails in the Sky SC is the best English Trails game we currently have in my opinion. Can't wait for Trails in the Sky the Third next spring so I can get a better idea of the series meta story.

[JacobVR]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning would probably suit you. Good action based gameplay with a fairly robust skill system and a huge game world. Especially if you get the two DLC packs which add about another 10 hours each.

[elessar123]

If you play, just don't enter the DLC packs. They adjust to your level when you first enter. So if you go exploring a bit and continue the story, the DLC gets locked at a lower level. Unless they fixed that (which I doubt).

[JEKKI]

spoilers of SMT Apocolypse, but this story is the most fan-fictiony shyt ever.

 

it basically takes one of the many routes the original SMT4 can go in, and makes a sidestory out of it revolving around some random characters in the world, so already a perfect setting to do whatever they want.

 

Your main character dies at the beginning of the game, only to be revived by some demon with an agenda, the dood's like "you will be my guy! through you I will accomplish my goals"

 

then you go on a mission and run into a character who's like "you! young man! is that my son hanging around with you? BOY! WTF you doing with that kid!"

 

and the demon's like "moooooooooom~!!! shutup! I'm trying to do a thing! leave me alone! gosh!! grrrr you're so annoying!!"

 

and ppl on neogaf be like "yo this story is awesome! way better than the original!"