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Post by kaoru on Aug 23, 2019 3:59:12 GMT -5
Finished Final Fantasy Explorers, SquareEnix' second stab at the Monster Hunters (though it is technically made by Racjin). It puts in a bit more RPG mechanics, with it offering the typical FF jobs and skills. Also has a lot more "filler" quests where you gather and kill smaller monsters, with the big hunts against the Summons coming up less often. It's really quick and easy. And generally what people usually complain about in MH, in that it is kind of dull and grindy. Somehow I can play MH for 50 hours and barely get bored, but FFE got tiring quicker despite the individual quests being done in few minutes and the "story" part being over in less than 15 hours. There's another five post game ranks of missions to do, but those seem more designed for full player teams instead of me soloing with a monster companion.
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Post by shelverton on Aug 23, 2019 4:54:43 GMT -5
Finished Bloodstained. I can kinda see what people mean about the last couple of areas of the game, they were somewhat lame, in fact the final area doesn't really scream "final area" much, I was surprised that it was really the last one. I'm also disappointed that there's no equivalent to the Inner Quarters/Demon Guest House from Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, that was one of my favorite themes and seemed like it would have been a natural fit for Bloodstained, but maybe next time. Despite a few small complaints that was a great game, I'm honestly sad that it's over, that was a hell of a long wait since IGA's last game, over a decade in fact, hopefully it won't be that long till Bloodstained 2. While it doesn't quite hit the same highs as the Metroidvanias at their best, it's still absolutely a worthy successor, I can't wait to see what's next. Bloodstained made me realize that I really need my gothic castles to make at least a liiiittle sense. In something like Portrait of Ruin I accepted the madness because you were inside paintings, but if I climb to the top of the castle and end up in what appears to be a cave (which is essentially what happens when you first reach Oriental Sorcery Lab) I will have an issue with that. This area could have been an excellent Watch Tower or Outer Wall typ area if they had just reskinned it, but no - it’s a cave high up in the castle followed by a sudden japanese style interior that seems very out of place. Couldn’t they at least have moved the area to below the ground or something... Also, the actual name of the area is very unclear to me still. How is it a sorcery lab? The Den of Behemoths is the kind of area that made me go: ”Oh so this is how they accomplished the stretch goal ”IGAs biggest castle”!” It’s 100% filler (but the boss was cool). Other areas that perhaps could’ve been something else was the Hidden Desert and definitely the final area too.
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Post by GamerL on Aug 23, 2019 5:47:14 GMT -5
Finished Bloodstained. I can kinda see what people mean about the last couple of areas of the game, they were somewhat lame, in fact the final area doesn't really scream "final area" much, I was surprised that it was really the last one. I'm also disappointed that there's no equivalent to the Inner Quarters/Demon Guest House from Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, that was one of my favorite themes and seemed like it would have been a natural fit for Bloodstained, but maybe next time. Despite a few small complaints that was a great game, I'm honestly sad that it's over, that was a hell of a long wait since IGA's last game, over a decade in fact, hopefully it won't be that long till Bloodstained 2. While it doesn't quite hit the same highs as the Metroidvanias at their best, it's still absolutely a worthy successor, I can't wait to see what's next. Bloodstained made me realize that I really need my gothic castles to make at least a liiiittle sense. In something like Portrait of Ruin I accepted the madness because you were inside paintings, but if I climb to the top of the castle and end up in what appears to be a cave (which is essentially what happens when you first reach Oriental Sorcery Lab) I will have an issue with that. This area could have been an excellent Watch Tower or Outer Wall typ area if they had just reskinned it, but no - it’s a cave high up in the castle followed by a sudden japanese style interior that seems very out of place. Couldn’t they at least have moved the area to below the ground or something... Also, the actual name of the area is very unclear to me still. How is it a sorcery lab? The Den of Behemoths is the kind of area that made me go: ”Oh so this is how they accomplished the stretch goal ”IGAs biggest castle”!” It’s 100% filler (but the boss was cool). Other areas that perhaps could’ve been something else was the Hidden Desert and definitely the final area too. True, the castle doesn't have as much logic to it as some of the past ones, that's one room for improvement for a sequel I guess. I quite liked the Hidden Desert though, that was a neat homage to a Portrait of Ruin level, but the final area lacks any real proper "oomph" to feel like a final area, I think of how crazy and cool Dawn of Sorrow's final level was. I'm also disappointed that the game lacked a secret area as significant as the pirate ship area in Aria of Sorrow, though there was at least the 8 Bit Nightmare, which was amusing. But on a positive note I forgot to mention too that I just really like the character of Miriam, she's a really cool design and it's fun to play as her, I liked her voice acting as well, hopefully the idea is she's always the protagonist instead of a new protagonists for almost every game like the Castlevanias.
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Post by Snake on Aug 23, 2019 17:00:29 GMT -5
Bloodstained made me realize that I really need my gothic castles to make at least a liiiittle sense. In something like Portrait of Ruin I accepted the madness because you were inside paintings, but if I climb to the top of the castle and end up in what appears to be a cave (which is essentially what happens when you first reach Oriental Sorcery Lab) I will have an issue with that. This area could have been an excellent Watch Tower or Outer Wall typ area if they had just reskinned it, but no - it’s a cave high up in the castle followed by a sudden japanese style interior that seems very out of place. Couldn’t they at least have moved the area to below the ground or something... Also, the actual name of the area is very unclear to me still. How is it a sorcery lab? The Den of Behemoths is the kind of area that made me go: ”Oh so this is how they accomplished the stretch goal ”IGAs biggest castle”!” It’s 100% filler (but the boss was cool). HA! Oriental Sorcery Lab was definitely the oddball. While I do like some of its elements, like the warping pits/doors and the blood getting splattered onto shoji screens, it was just an odd ball location. Hell, it only serves a place to meet Zangetsu. How does gothic castle with gorgeous guilding and architecture have an add-on Japanese garden? Den of Behemoths just seems like they took the existing design for Garden of Silence and upped the sizing. Considering that Den of Behemoths and Glacial Tomb exists in Gremory's alternate dimension, I was kinda hoping it would be an additional 100% of maps. Although, I suppose the game is already pretty long... but I think 2 more sections and bosses would be icing on the cake. Not that I'm unhappy with the game. It's been the most compulsive fun I've had in a while. There aren't many games where I care enough to put in the extra time for a platinum trophy.
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Post by lurker on Aug 24, 2019 16:48:10 GMT -5
Any recommendations for character builds for the Hero and Erik in DQXI?
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Post by kaoru on Aug 24, 2019 17:48:12 GMT -5
Not much you can do wrong in XI, as long as no Draconian Settings are active, the game's on the easy side. It's usually good to specialize in one weapon for a character instead of spreading out tho. Personally, I went for Greatsword Hero and Knife Erik. But used a couple Boomerangs at the beginning anyways for their group damage potential.
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Post by lurker on Aug 24, 2019 17:51:47 GMT -5
I'm thinking of going with Sword and shield for Hero. What do you mean by Draconian Settings?
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Post by kaoru on Aug 24, 2019 18:17:28 GMT -5
When you started the game, and later in churches, you had the option to turn on some special challenges. From harder enemies to things like not being allowed to flee from battles, buy things at shops, or wear any armor.
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Post by lurker on Aug 24, 2019 18:19:59 GMT -5
When you started the game, and later in churches, you had the option to turn on some special challenges. From harder enemies to things like not being allowed to flee from battles, buy things at shops, or wear any armor. Ah ok. I'm using the demo version right now and didn't enable those.
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Post by lurker on Aug 24, 2019 19:05:37 GMT -5
Also, I really need to get better equipment. Not enough materials to make anything yet.
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Post by kaoru on Aug 24, 2019 19:36:05 GMT -5
The fun-sized forge is super OP. I think I only bought equip in the first hour or two and then never again, only synthing for the remaining 80. Also don't stress out about the smithing mini-game - eben if you "fail" you still get the base item with all stats intact, being successful simply can apply +1 to +3 to raise them, but you can't mess them up at all.
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Post by lurker on Aug 24, 2019 19:42:21 GMT -5
The fun-sized forge is super OP. I think I only bought equip in the first hour or two and then never again, only synthing for the remaining 80. Also don't stress out about the smithing mini-game - eben if you "fail" you still get the base item with all stats intact, being successful simply can apply +1 to +3 to raise them, but you can't mess them up at all. Right now I'm a bit underpowered. I'm so used to the whole "you'll find better stuff in the dungeon" approach that the only thing I've bought is health stuff.
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Post by jorpho on Aug 25, 2019 13:19:06 GMT -5
Finally finished Ace Attorney Investigations, having started it many, many months ago. It definitely gets more than a little tedious at times, but the finale is a little satisfying. It is of course quite ridiculous to imagine freakin' hot dogs being sold in boxes. A bit of Googling suggests they were originally "manjuu". Surely it would have made more sense to call them "pastries", or something? My best guess is that Larry Butz is selling food from a stand in the first Ace Attorney game and it made sense to call them "hot dogs" there, so they decided to maintain consistency. I should probably start up Grey Matter next; it has been taking up space on my hard drive for a very long time. It's not a long game, is it?
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Aug 25, 2019 16:48:33 GMT -5
Picked up Sega Ages Wonder Boy in Monster Land. Thought I'd just play through it quickly but I got stuck at the stage 8 boss because I didn't have the Legend Sword and Legend Armor yet, so it's not going to be that simple. The Sword is behind a hidden boss that I couldn't beat, but the Armor is in a hidden shop that I didn't find. Seems like a bit of pre-knowledge is quite important in beating the game. Interesting that you can actually get in a bad enough situation that no matter the credits you'll throw at it, you just won't be able to proceed. Pretty odd for an arcade game, and it would really suck if you were actually playing it in the arcades.
One thing that's kind of a weird oversight, considering the reputation of the Sega Ages line and M2, is that you can't map the bomb/magic function to anything but down on the d-pad/stick. Because that surely won't result in using your precious magic by accident...Maybe on an actual arcade machine it's not a problem, but it surely is on the Switch.
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Post by lurker on Aug 25, 2019 18:54:47 GMT -5
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