What game are you wasting time on?

[octavius]

Was gonna try Shogun: Total War, Warlock Edition.
I bought it at the Salvation Army's thrift shop for 3-4 bucks, but it's still annoying that one of the CDs were missing!

 

[Erebus]

Just finished FF6 again. The final battle was a lot easier than I remember, perhaps because my PCs were a bit too strong (most of them were around level 45, but Celes, Terra and Relm were above level 60).

I know pretty much nothing about recent Final Fantasy games (by which I mean anything after FF8). I'm not interested in the MMORPGs, but I wonder if any of the single-player ones are interesting ?

 

[Abu Antar]

6, 9 and Tactics are my favorite games in the series.

 

[Puukko]

Just finished FF6 again. The final battle was a lot easier than I remember, perhaps because my PCs were a bit too strong (most of them were around level 45, but Celes, Terra and Relm were above level 60).

I know pretty much nothing about recent Final Fantasy games (by which I mean anything after FF8). I'm not interested in the MMORPGs, but I wonder if any of the single-player ones are interesting ?

I am by no means an authority on FF but I'm currently playing XII TZA with the struggle for freedom difficulty mod and I can only recommend it. I'll write my thoughts down properly once I'm done with it (60h in, probably another 30-40h to go as I aim to do most of the side content) and while it is a controversial entry among fans (though held in higher regard these days due to XIII/XV) it clicked for me. With the difficulty mod specifically, I really have to use everything at my disposal and make good use of both gambits (AI commands) and manual commands to handle bosses, of which there are many. The game is rather combat focused and much of the side content deals with this, but I also like the setting, soundtrack (rather generic orchestral, but of the better sort, made by the guy behind Valkyria Chronicles and Tactics Ogre) and the story is fairly good though it doesn't quite have that feeling of escalation I'd expect to have when I'm like 3/4 through the main story at least. If strong characters are what you're looking for, then this might be a middling entry as 2/6 of the party are out of place tag alongs and even the rest don't interact with each other much. But if you think a combat focused entry with good challenge and a story dealing with political intrigue, treason, loyalty and such interests you, then give it a try.

 

[CyberWhale]

6, 9 and Tactics are my favorite games in the series.

Second this.

 

[Hyperion]

I am by no means an authority on FF but I'm currently playing XII TZA with the struggle for freedom difficulty mod and I can only recommend it.

I was going to do just this, but the modder said if you wanna start now, hold out because the next big update should be done by the end of the month. I'm sitting on the edge of my hands because I typically play FF12 once every year.

Penelo is definitely a tagalong, but Vaan is there to serve as a mirror to how Ashe should NOT act and feel towards the Empire. Her hatred, rage, and thirst for vegeance are meaningless, and will do nothing but make her feel even more hollow. The game flat out tells you this during a cutscene in Jahara, after asking the Village Chief about the Nethicite. It's also why Vaan doesn't see the ghost of Rasler a 2nd time, he left his quest for vengeance behind, leaving the Occuria no strong emotions to exploit and play puppetmaster with.

It was the same thing with Balthier, only time he ever saw the Occuria was the flash of Venat when he saw Cid in the Draklor Laboratory.

Though Balthier and Ashe were the main characters it still follows a semi-ensemble cast much like FF6, the only real big emotional reveal the game offers you towards the end is between Gabranth and Basch in Pharos, which really hints towards major story changes late in development because of SEs suits, unfortunately.

It's safe to say I consider 12 the series' opus regardless of the game's development strife, as it was a combination of exploration, difficulty (if you pushed the hunts ASAP, and hit all the endgame content), without delving into stupidity like Emerald Weapon grinding and watching Knights of the Round for an hour, had enjoyable cutscenes, and a unique setting. After that it would be 6 for the 2nd half of the game, then 1 for freedom, followed by 9 and 7. I'm not including Tactics because I feel it belongs in a different set of games.

All that said, while I wait for Struggle for Freedom's update, I'm playing Summoner 2. Shame it hasn't gotten a Steam release even though theassively inferior Summoner 1 has. It ditched the boring RTwP combat for a straight up ARPG that lets you pause the game while selecting targets for spells and the like as a better alternative.

The characters are unique enough, with Maia, the protagonist being a hybrd melee / caster / healer who can shapeshift into various creatures with different strengths and weaknesses, her general Taurgis, the game's brute, and Sangaril, a stealthy assassin, amongst others like a Hand-to-Hand Monk with superior healing capabilities, a Soul-Sucking Giant, stereotypical bearded Wizard, and a robot with a gun-arm.

The gameplay varies itself enough that it's never really boring, and forces you to use every party member at some point, splitting them up in groups of 2 or 3, and allows for gameplay changes such as using Sangaril's stealth function to sneak behind enemies, avoid detection, and go for a OHKO backstab. Or use Taurgis' slow-footed nature to fight equally lumbering beasts in 1v1 or 1v2 fashion. Neru gets to fight up close and personal, and use different stances for offense, and defense proving quite useful against armored enemies resistant to slash and pierce, while being the game's premier healer.

Content-wise, the game offers oodles of sidequests, with little to no guidance, and may even require you to jot down little notes of points of interest the game throws at you in assorted areas. Unlike most games with a massive town / questhub that I absolutely despise, the game does a good job of keeping the content condensed within, and doesn't have to resort to a huge town with a loading screen every 20 seconds, or backtracking to the same spot 7 times. Most backtracking can be completed with a single load screen, if any.

It also offers some mild C&C in deciding how Queen Maia should handle petitions from her vassals, and nobles of nearby nations. Though most of them do have optimal rewards (like any other game), getting to choose whether Maia is a fair Queen, or rules with a bit of an Iron Hand, such as denying a Princess access to a royal tomb to bury her Father's remains for past transgressions is kinda fun.

 

[Harry Easter]

Yeah, Summoner 2 did a lot of things right. The world was even more interesting and the lore very good, but I could never get really into it. I think this is mostly, because the characters are more distant and the development for Maia and co was already completed years before the game. But the story is still interesting, so one day I will finish it.

 

[Erebus]

Come again?

That pissed me off so much. It's understandable, because those "major items" include a dragonlance and a belt of giant strength, and they would make too much of a difference in the second game (compared to newly-created parties). But still, to lose the dragonlance after all the time it took you to obtain it is really frustrating.

And the knights of Solamnia keep sucking even after you give them your best items, as the beginning of DKK illustrates.

This fucking game, I tell you. It is a perfect sibling to Pools of Darkness. Gruelling. Brain-bleedingly tedious. Unbelievably broken. Why? Because high-high level D&D. I fucking hate high level D&D. It's the worst fucking thing in existence. Completely pointless and so goddamn cheap in every single conceivable way. Most spells cease to work because epic saving throws. Conveyor belt of dark wizards which WILL insta-kill your mages and clerics with Delayed Blast Fireballs - unless you blast them first. Hope you got good dexterity to win those initiative checks. That's 99% of the combat, by the way.

I'm not a huge fan of high-level 2nd Ed D&D. It is a pity that, in DQK, spells that can be cancelled by a successful saving throw become pretty much useless, because everyone has great saving throws. But the opposite is not that great either : in Champions, spells like Charm Person, Hold Person and Stinking Cloud were simply too powerful, because it was so unlikely that the target would resist. Initiative rolls were just as crucial.

If that isn't bad enough there is the completely nebulous storyline where you'll chase after some bimbo half across the world.

The story's not worse than in Champions or Death Knights. I would even say it is better. I can remember what the bad guys were trying to accomplish in Dark Queen ; I've completely forgotten what their plans were in the previous two games.

Convoluted dungeon design that will leave you pondering your own sanity more than once.

Not really. The first dungeon is slightly boring and the lighthouse is admittedly a bit of a pain in the ass (the first time I played the game, I reached the top through sheer dumb luck), but the rest is fine.

In general, DQK did a great job giving its dungeons atmosphere and not making them feel repetitive.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I know pretty much nothing about recent Final Fantasy games (by which I mean anything after FF8). I'm not interested in the MMORPGs, but I wonder if any of the single-player ones are interesting ?

Final Fantasy IX is an intentional throwback to the earlier FFs (i.e. before VII), especially to FF IV, and is definitely worth a try if you disliked VII and VIII but enjoyed IV and VI. Wouldn't recommend any later games, though.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

Nerve damage on my right side has forced me to temporarily abandon mouse/keyboard games. I'm currently playing Witcher 3 with my Logitech controller. Ugh...

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Stories: The Path of Destinies

Really simple ARPG about a fox involved in a rebellion against an evil Emperor. The art is nice and the gameplay is fine, although it works much better with a controller than a keyboard and mouse. I dunno if I'll complete it but I'll keep it installed for when my nephew visits.

Spoiler

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Like 6 hours into Jade Empire now. It's been in my backlog for ages. It's fairly simple but I'm enjoying it. I'll definitely finish it. I remember seeing it in the pre-owned Xbox section in Electronics Boutique many years ago and skipping it every time, and it's weird to realise now that I would have fucking loved it

 

[Darth Roxor]

Finished Tale of Wuxia.

Supercool game. One of those that make you feel sad upon reaching the end, just due to the sheer fact that it has come to an end while you're still hungry for more. Great combat, hilarious storytelling (and not only because of the borked translato, this game is genuinely funny throughout, though it also has some well written/presented serious scenes as well), quite high challenge, and one of the best, if not the best, character systems and building that I've ever seen in an RPG.

Highly freaking recommended. Buddha be praised.

 

[Abu Antar]

I hope you end up writing an official RPG Codex review for it.

 

[octavius]

When not playing full games (Deus Ex is next on my play list) I've mostly been playing user made content for Thief 1+2 and HoMM 3 lately.

There were lots of maps coming out for HoMM 3 in the first half of 2000, no doubt because of the release of the two expansion packs. Small quest type maps where you play only one or two heroes who recruit units on the road instead of at your home castle were quite popular, like Amaranth Soul Shift, The Imp, Fairy Tales and Time of Testing. The latter was promising, but then my hero was supposed to conquer a castle with 100 Ancient Behemots, with a force of 4 Sharpshooters, a Ballista and 3-400 Nomads. According to the Read Me you are supposed to block the gate with the nomads, don't use the Capapult and then use your ranged units to defeat the Behemoths. Yeah right, like I'm gonna use a whole day to sloooooowly whittle away those Behemoths...
The other three maps were all good, especially Fairy Tales. Very well balanced, and nice tactical situations.

For Thief 1 and 2 I recently played Ranstall Keep and Events in Highrock. RK was partly "ruined" by modern patches replacing some of the black&white textures, but personally I didn't really mind. I think it's the first Thief mission I'm not playing Garret, and definitely the first one playing a female taffer.
Quite good, and above average dificulty.

Events in Highrock...I'm ambivalent about this one. There a very good atmosphere and many memorable places and puzzles, but it's also quite frustrating and exhausting, with some very well hidden loot. Took me ages to find the second lockpick for example, as it was virtually invisible against the background, and the only Rope Arrows in the whole mission are located in the same place and very easy to miss.
Also the mission changed character completely, going from traditional urban taffing to killing undead and an evil mage in a dark castle.
Too me over six hours to complete, which is probably thrice more than the second largest. In the end I also had to consult a walkthrough to find the last pieces of loot I needed to win.
Not for the casual sunday taffer. Patience and thoroughness is needed to complete.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

My autism is still not allowing me to drop the game Reassembly. It's a simple physics game where you "LEGO" together components into AI controlled starships to do battle. The gimmick in partiuclar is that your maps get populated by other human created fleets, so the challenges are constant. As close as I get, I cannot quite get "The One True Fleet" that wins 100% of the time. I am winding down though. I will probably play Pathfinder: Kingmaker, since it seems like it's done by now.

 

[Nostaljaded]

Finished Tale of Wuxia.

Supercool game. One of those that make you feel sad upon reaching the end, just due to the sheer fact that it has come to an end while you're still hungry for more. Great combat, hilarious storytelling (and not only because of the borked translato, this game is genuinely funny throughout, though it also has some well written/presented serious scenes as well), quite high challenge, and one of the best, if not the best, character systems and building that I've ever seen in an RPG.

Highly freaking recommended. Buddha be praised.

Tales of Wuxia is (at the min) the 2nd iteration of that game world setting, character building system and storytelling style.

Played the 1st one (Heroes of Jin Yong/金庸群俠傳[1996]), dabbled the 2nd one (Legend of Wulin Heroes/武林群俠傳[2001]) but have not played this though.

ENG translation would have been a notch better simply by doing a semi-automated spell check during their last translation pass, don't know what's with their ENG QC.


There's a hidden, autist difficulty mode beyond 'Grandmaster' that will only be unlocked under certain conditions from a completed playthrough, should be in ENG version as well.
Protagonist's name and all his skills learned are retained, but reset to Lv 1.

The autist protagonist & 1st Boss combat stats

 

[Abu Antar]

Man, I want to play both of those. Those two mentioned in your post, that is. Their 3 latest games were all cool.

 

[Pharad]

When not playing full games (Deus Ex is next on my play list) I've mostly been playing user made content for Thief 1+2 and HoMM 3 lately.

There were lots of maps coming out for HoMM 3 in the first half of 2000, no doubt because of the release of the two expansion packs. Small quest type maps where you play only one or two heroes who recruit units on the road instead of at your home castle were quite popular, like Amaranth Soul Shift, The Imp, Fairy Tales and Time of Testing. The latter was promising, but then my hero was supposed to conquer a castle with 100 Ancient Behemots, with a force of 4 Sharpshooters, a Ballista and 3-400 Nomads. According to the Read Me you are supposed to block the gate with the nomads, don't use the Capapult and then use your ranged units to defeat the Behemoths. Yeah right, like I'm gonna use a whole day to sloooooowly whittle away those Behemoths...
The other three maps were all good, especially Fairy Tales. Very well balanced, and nice tactical situations.

For Thief 1 and 2 I recently played Ranstall Keep and Events in Highrock. RK was partly "ruined" by modern patches replacing some of the black&white textures, but personally I didn't really mind. I think it's the first Thief mission I'm not playing Garret, and definitely the first one playing a female taffer.
Quite good, and above average dificulty.

Events in Highrock...I'm ambivalent about this one. There a very good atmosphere and many memorable places and puzzles, but it's also quite frustrating and exhausting, with some very well hidden loot. Took me ages to find the second lockpick for example, as it was virtually invisible against the background, and the only Rope Arrows in the whole mission are located in the same place and very easy to miss.
Also the mission changed character completely, going from traditional urban taffing to killing undead and an evil mage in a dark castle.
Too me over six hours to complete, which is probably thrice more than the second largest. In the end I also had to consult a walkthrough to find the last pieces of loot I needed to win.
Not for the casual sunday taffer. Patience and thoroughness is needed to complete.

Ohh man, I remember my HoMM 3 days, so many hours lost, but so worth it :D currently I have a quite different obsession though, got the new Sims 4 DLC and haven't seen the light of day ever since. This will end someday though, and then I'm back to playing various RPG and RTS stuff

 

[samuraigaiden]

Finished South Park The Stick of Truth. As far as making a South Park game they nailed it, but I can't say I enjoyed the button mashing QTE heavy combat.

 

[Prime Junta]

I finally got around to playing Portal 2. It's one of those games that everybody raves about which automatically turns me off to it.

Bit of a nostalgia trip, harkening back to times when Valve still made games. And yeah I did like GladOS and Wheatley, well written and well voice-acted. They could've trimmed a few levels, there's only so much you can do with those physics gadgets without it turning repetitive.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Monster Hunter World. Man, what a mess. Just one big acid green glob of pure confusion to newbies to the series like myself with the mechanics and complexity of this game . Makes Dark Souls feel like Pokemon in that area. But I like that you can't just go charging in there with your giant Jap pork sword in hand that's bigger than you are and expect to faceroll even the earliest enemies. It forces you to think, unlike, say, the previous game I played (Assassin's Creed Origins). I'll continue to play until I'm bored or fed the fuck up.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Just one big acid green glob of pure confusion to newbies to the series like myself with the mechanics and complexity of this game . Makes Dark Souls feel like Pokemon in that area.

You would surprised to know Pokemon has more complexity and depth with it's stats than Dark Souls and many Western RPG's.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Just one big acid green glob of pure confusion to newbies to the series like myself with the mechanics and complexity of this game . Makes Dark Souls feel like Pokemon in that area.

You would surprised to know Pokemon has more complexity and depth with it's stats than Dark Souls and many Western RPG's.

I would say most jRPGS tend to be like this - shallow on the surface but actually more complex in gameplay mechanics than most western RPGs under the hood. It's all that Japanese retardo puerile cutesiness that tends to make "serious" RPG fans dismiss them. But I actually enjoy a lot of jRPGs/aRPGs due to this complexity and the first-rate presentation.

 

[deuxhero]

At least force sight gives 100% straight firing accuracy with the blaster rifle alt fire.

It does?!