[Draekon]

The Agarest SRPGs are grindy as hell. Just a heads up.

 

I'm going through Shining Resonance Refrain now and will start Octopath Traveler later. So many pointless sidequests in Shining Resonance though. It's always interesting being able to take on optional enemies that are 2.5x your level. It's about what I remember though. Interesting enough to be enjoyable, but nothing great.

[Supplice]

Speaking of the Agarest War games, they have been delisted from the Xbox store by Aksys Games. It's a matter of time before they get around to PSN and Steam.

[BlackRockWaifu]

Damn, one of the reasons I prefer physical content over digital. Though if they ever remove the updates, it'll be obsolete nonetheless. I've really only wanted the LEs for those games, but never got around to buying them.

[deadofnight]

Okay, I might have reached the point in Record of Agarest War where you need to start grinding. I've been having a lot of fun with the gameplay. I'm playing on normal, and I've been beating each new battle as they pop up.

Then I reached a giant bird. In one turn it can KO any of my party members. My plan the next time I play is plunder that dungeon of all it's treasure chests and exit. Stock up on supplies, and make enhancements to my gear. Save, then head straight for the bird.

If I can't figure out a way to beat him with the level I'm at I might shelve the game. Grinding fights in the same area doesn't appeal to me. I don't mind there being a shit ton of fights as long as it seems like I'm working my way through something. But purposely repeating the same fights seems like a drag.

 

Update. I was able to beat the bird. All it took was better positioning. Spaced out enough to avoid multiple party members getting hit from a single attack, but close enough to each other so that healing and revives can be done. My characters' standard attacks did practically no damage, but they were important because they helped build meter towards the major attacks. It was an interesting fight.

So far I'm really liking this game.

[Supplice]

I've been enjoying Shining Resonance Refrain even if for the third time. The skits and dates still make me laugh and smile. Plus, listening to the English cast give their interpretations of the characters are well done and provide another unique experience for me. 

 

Other than that, I'm just trying to see how fast I can complete things with my knowledge of the game. To which I broke the normal difficulty of the game within the first 11 hours of play. Starting with Chapter 2 via some power leveling by abusing perfect block against enemies 3x my level. After that in Chapter 3, I gathered all the special aspects from the grimoire dungeons and started working on my Berserker Yuma build. After a bit and not even half completed with the build, I was already doing an average of 600 dmg to monsters per normal strike. In Chapter 4, I rushed to make the materials needed to make several aspects to allow benched members to gain EXP so I could just stay with all my all star team. It also helped me max out the attack speed tune needed to unlocked three additional tunes in Yuma's tree. One of which is needed for my Berserker build and thus, completing the setup.  At level 8 of the tune and stacking level 2-3 aspects, I was hitting for 1.2K damage per swing after buffs.

 

So at this point the story is essentially done. However, I need to grind out the dating for all party members to see their respective endings and level someone to 100. It's actually really relaxing.    

 

Lastly, I finished the Sega Survey they provided a link to within the game's XMB. I just asked for them to continue the series, localize them, give SteelBooks as physical preorders incentives (the metal case was a good start), exclusives themes or DLCs for digital buyers, and keep hiring Tony Taka for visual materials. 

[deadofnight]

I finished the first generation in Record of Agarest War. I noticed "1st Generation" in my save file, but I didn't know anything about how the game works.

I'll probably play other games between Generations. If I focus only on this game I think it will start to feel like a chore. With a sound strategy the battles were starting to get a bit monotonous. I beat the last battle in my second set of turns.

But, three-fourths of the way through the Generation I started making better use of the shops. I didn't make much use of them at first because I was hoarding all my items and funds. Crafting stuff to craft more stuff is enjoyable.

[deadofnight]

Holy shit. I started playing Record of Agarest War again. I made it to the second dungeon with a boss similar to the Jumbo Cock (the actual name of the giant bird). My first attempt was a quick loss. My second attempt showed I can't use the same strategy as the bird. In my third attempt I found a good tactic, but it was after I lost two of my six party members. This boss healed 1100 hp every time his turn came around, so it was stalemate because the party members I had left couldn't keep damaging him enough.

I tried the fight again today, and with my full team I was able to beat it. It took 19 full party turns, and almost two hours!

I was happy to see party turns in dungeons don't count towards your overall turns. I read to get the true ending you need to keep your turn count down, and I took a lot of turns in that fight. I also have to work on getting my meter from Light down to Neutral. I might look at a guide to see what choices I'm willing to make can help with that.

[Jodou]

Sounds like a seriously deep and engaging game. The kind I have zero patience for anymore.

[deadofnight]

I'm dropping Record of Agarest War. The gameplay is pretty good, but it wears thin. I could probably handle playing a little bit of it here and there over a long period of time, but last week I got Conan Exiles, and I'm really into it. Other than the weekly fight money challenges for Street Fighter V I'll probably just play Conan.

Also, I looked up a video of that second dungeon boss fight. There is a much simpler way to do it. I just played it way too safe. I think I played that way because Persona 4 Golden was my first JRPG. It's in my head that if the main character goes down the game is over, so I take extra care of the MCs. Even though that seems to be something unique to Persona.

[Jodou]

Back on the WoW train as of yesterday, definitely worth checking out if you've been away a while. Not because the game is really different, just for the new zones and fun of a new expac. Drust is my new favorite zone in the entire game, just unbeatable.

[Gershomcz]

I finally bought Danganronpa 1 & 2 during the flash sale this past weekend. Excited to finally play them.

[Jodou]

So last night I discovered WoW now has a bounty system. . .for world pvp. . .THERE GOES MY SOCIAL LIFE.

[Draekon]

I only briefly touched WoW in the last three expansions when my cousin asked me to play with him. I learned very quickly that he doesn't really understand the concept of playing with another person when not at max level. I still buy the physical collectors expansions though. I'm not sure where I'm going to put this one when it arrives today. I'm somewhat interested in seeing the new areas, but I'd likely create a character on a PvE server and leave War Mode off. I still need to find a place for my Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire CE that arrived Monday as well.

 

I've cut way back on buying currently. I have Dragon Quest XI coming, which is already pre-ordered for about $40 on PC. Otherwise I don't think I have anything else on the current horizon even though there are plenty I'm interested in. Though technically I guess CrossCode on September 20th, but I bought that years ago. I'll probably leech some PS4 releases from a friend as I currently need to keep expenditures down.

[Jodou]

The new areas are nothing like the rehash of the past, they actually took their time with this one and the zones have real personality. I hated Legion for Suramar alone and none of the other areas were very interesting other than "let's rehash every starting zone into an entire part of an island" ad naseum. So far we've seen a zone dedicated to sp00ky things (personal fav), a desert, swamp, and we're about to start a new zone in a bit. Since they finally started taking graphics seriously, the game has just breathed life; they're ripping off things like Bloodbourne, Skyrim, etc but I don't mind because they're legit.

 

They reverted a lot of the bad changes back, so a lot of party buffs are back and classes feel useful again. The way things are coming together with having actual options on how to rep grind from the war table and gear has some totally new mechanics make it one of the most revolutionary expacs I've seen. I normally think they're blah or more of the same, but this one has knocked it out of the park so far. Future content will be really telling, but I haven't had this much fun with WoW in a looooooooooong time.

[Supplice]

I imported a new fightstick so I have a couple of fighters lined up in the future to help break them in: Dengeki Bunko/Climax ver, Tekken 7, Nitroplus, BBCTAG, SNK Heroines (lolTerry), and more Killer Instinct matches.

[elessar123]

Imported? Korean stick?

[Supplice]

Imported? Korean stick?

eTokki Omni Korean Ed.

[elessar123]

eTokki Omni Korean Ed.

Kinda figured, since Japanese parts are readily available.

I was hoping to find a Korean stick at EVO, but no one sells them here.

[deadofnight]

I played through the first chapter in Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. I would like to see how the story continues, but the gameplay doesn't make me excited to boot the game back up. At first I thought "Cool, I'm seeing the school in first-person. This would be awesome in VR". But after finishing the chapter I realized there wasn't much to the gameplay.

 

I'm not giving up on the game, but... yeah, the gameplay doesn't give me the urge to play it. What's keeping my interest is it involving characters from the first game.

[Jodou]

Been playing Hollow Knight and it's a great game; I'm just struggling to keep invested because my affinity for platformers just isn't there like when I was younger. Obvious Souls-Borne mechanics have been ripped straight out of those games into this one, but at least it has original charm being about a kingdom of bugs. Very metroid-vania that's driving my completionist side crazy since I'm not using a guide and I don't quite like the upgrade system since it forces you to choose between legit character improvements vs simple QoL things such as where you are on the map. : \

 

I like it but not very challenging and I'm having to force myself to play it. Still, recommended when it's on sale.