What are you playing?

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Ravenpoe said:
"I finally figured out what all these panties are for!"

- Something I never thought I'd say while playing a game. Or, in general, really. But thank god, those things were taking up a ton of inventory space.
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I had this same reaction in Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Apparently they boost defense or offense, depending on the color.

Also, change the color of the panty shot in Alice's final attack/Geppetto's version of said attack in Covenant.

Kind of glad they don't show up in SH: From the New World.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

AshburnerX said:
I had this same reaction in Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Apparently they boost defense or offense, depending on the color.

Also, change the color of the panty shot in Alice's final attack/Geppetto's version of said attack in Covenant.

Kind of glad they don't show up in SH: From the New World.
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Aren't porno magazines power ups in one of the SH games?
 
Null

Null

Ravenpoe said:
"I finally figured out what all these panties are for!"

- Something I never thought I'd say while playing a game. Or, in general, really. But thank god, those things were taking up a ton of inventory space.
Click to expand...
Okay, you have my attention. Do tell.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Bowielee said:
Aren't porno magazines power ups in one of the SH games?
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In the first game, if you pick up a skin mag in the first half of the game, you can give it to Roger near the end to get some items that eventually allow you to get Yuri's ultimate transformation.

In the second game, you pick up what are basically gay porn trading cards. You give these to one of the roving merchant guys that follow you around and in exchange he makes dresses for Cordelia, Geppetto's doll and means of attack. These dresses change her elemental alignment (changing Gep's weakness and strengths) and teach Geppetto a new elemental spell. Most people don't use him because Anastasia is a better caster due to her special ability, but Geppetto's later spells are also quite good. Unfortunately, one of Cordelia's dresses isn't obtainable in the game because it was tied to having a certain Japanese version of the previous game... if you have a save from the first game, you still get a free card (which helps early game) but you can't get the Meiyun card (based on a character in the previous game) so you can't get the ultimate dress.

Then again, said dress was Cordelia wearing nothing. Yes, she's a featureless wooden doll (except for the face) but it's still kinda creepy.

Oh, and Penny Arcade did a strip.



Shadow Heart's depiction of gay men as stereotypes is infamous... and yet at the same time, the flaming, stereotypical gay guys you meet are the single most helpful people in the game. The merchants go to a lot of trouble to sell you stuff, even giving you huge discounts at times... and the Great Gama is the one that teaches Joachim new moves. He even unlocks Joachim's ultimate transformation... but only if you complete his "Man Festival", which entails beating up 100 curry themed, sweaty, oiled wrestler guys.

Yeah, Shadow Hearts embodies the best AND the worst aspects of anime. Japan has still got a LONG way to go in it's depiction of gay people.
 
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CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Giving Lost Odyssey another shot after finding it super cheap while out and about the other day. I keep hearing how great a game it is, but the first hour or so is painfully slow, and Kaim's very Squall-esque in attitude, at least for the moment.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Ravenpoe said:
Shadow Hearts: Covenant is easily one of my favorite rpgs of all time.

From the new world just didn't have the same flavor
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From The New World wasn't even a bad game in the slightest. Mechanics wise, it's fundamentally superior to Covenant in every way. It even has a cast of fun, interesting, entertaining characters in and of themselves. But the main story didn't pack the same punch... Shadow Hearts was fundamentally a romance story that was fueled by a world changing conflict. Covenant had the same idea: the world changing conflict fuels the story, but it's actually about the tragedy that came out of that romance. If FTNW had spent a good portion of time going into the loss of identity and loneliness that the main character was going through now that his family was gone, it would have been a much better story.

Too bad we'll never get another. Some slot machine/pachinko dev owns the rights and the last game that came out using the "Hearts" tagline and art style was on PSP and had nothing to do with any of the rest of the series.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Mega Man 2: I'm really trying not to use restore points for this playthrough, but I feel like this fucking dragon (and the jump part before it) are going to make me cave. I can do it ... but I don't know if I have the patience to do it over and over until I hit a checkpoint.
 
CynicismKills

CynicismKills

CynicismKills said:
Giving Lost Odyssey another shot after finding it super cheap while out and about the other day. I keep hearing how great a game it is, but the first hour or so is painfully slow, and Kaim's very Squall-esque in attitude, at least for the moment.
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Jesus fucking Christ I'm like 6-7 hours in and this game just made me cry. That hasn't happened since the first time I beat Lufia II.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Evolve: I've gotten re-invested in this since I decided to stick with the hunters. They're getting better. Today I didn't see a single monster win, even when it was my turn. I think some of us monster players have gotten sloppy, and now that hunter players are getting more used to their roles, communicating more, we're going to have to improve our tactics.

Took down three wraiths with decent groups. When I've played as wraith, it's been my game to win. I'm going to have to try again soon and see. I do know one thing; it's getting boring just fighting wraiths, but I think monster players will diversify more as hunters figure out more anti-wraith tactics.
 
Dei

Dei

Playing Majora's Mask 3ds is actually kind of annoying. Not because it's hard, but because outside of a few things being moved around in Clock Town, and the way saving is done being changed, if I just play the game without paying attention I go through everything by rote because I remember it all in the back of my mind.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Dei said:
Playing Majora's Mask 3ds is actually kind of annoying. Not because it's hard, but because outside of a few things being moved around in Clock Town, and the way saving is done being changed, if I just play the game without paying attention I go through everything by rote because I remember it all in the back of my mind.
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This is me with Ocarina, but I only did MM once so I'm still looking forward to it at some point.

How is saving done now?
 
Dei

Dei

Owl statutes are permanent save spots instead of temporary ones, so you don't need to rewind to day 1 to save.
 
Dei

Dei

Also, I only played through once, and watched my husband (then boyfriend) do a 100% playthrough, so I didn't think I had played it enough for that to happen. Sadly, no.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Dei said:
Also, I only played through once, and watched my husband (then boyfriend) do a 100% playthrough, so I didn't think I had played it enough for that to happen. Sadly, no.
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Eeg, I was afraid of that. It's a game where you end up playing through it over and over in a way ... hmm.
 
Terrik

Terrik

Evolve: Still going strong. I've been playing through the evacuation missions and they're a lot of fun, especially with the changing map conditions depending on the winner of each map. There's actually a lot of cool thought put into it. However, like some have noted, the "auto balance" is kind of borked. If you win the preceding three or four matches, you're going to lose the whole thing in the last match, because the opposite team is enhanced greatly to keep things "fair". This is especially true if you're the monster, since the hunters in the final map don't permanently die and respawn every 30 seconds, making it almost a better option to lose matches purposefully up until the last match so you "win" the whole thing. It's gotten some noise on the boards and its something I think is going to be fixed. This, of course, has literally no impact on the skirmish hunt maps which most people play anyhow, so, whatever. I'm also kind of tickled that I made it into the top 350 Goliath players worldwide....that's an achievement of some sort I'm sure.

Valkayra Chronicles: This is the kind of game that @Jay would kick you hard in the balls for playing, right before he called you a console peasant. It's anime style, full of dialogue and cutscene after friggin cutscene. Still, there's an excellent game in there and it's pretty addicting to boot. I'm playing the PC port and it's one of those rare ports that are actually done pretty well. I got it on a steam sale and it was a good purchase. Plus a weird anime take on a fictionalized WW2 setting is kind of fun too.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
A friend of mine and I have been hitting Left 4 Dead 2's campaign fairly regularly lately. Finally got to where we had completed all campaign maps on advanced, and we were ready to try Expert.

Well, that's a whole 'nother game right there. Full damage on friendly fire, instant kills from witches, hugely increased damage from zombies and they soak much more before being killed. I was really starting to get into it, even though on our 3rd try we still hadn't made it to the subway in No Mercy. But my friend couldn't take it any more. Described it as "too intense" and begged off. I told him he needed to Git Gud, Scrub. No wonder he couldn't hack it in Killing Floor, either.
 
Jay

Jay

Terrik said:
Maybe, but it does commit the many sins a typical JRPG/Strategy game tends to do.
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I own this game on PS3, it's excellent. I don't mind JRPGs, as long as it doesn't have a bunch of shit/useless characters, weak gameplay and a crappy storyline.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

GasBandit said:
A friend of mine and I have been hitting Left 4 Dead 2's campaign fairly regularly lately. Finally got to where we had completed all campaign maps on advanced, and we were ready to try Expert.

Well, that's a whole 'nother game right there. Full damage on friendly fire, instant kills from witches, hugely increased damage from zombies and they soak much more before being killed. I was really starting to get into it, even though on our 3rd try we still hadn't made it to the subway in No Mercy. But my friend couldn't take it any more. Described it as "too intense" and begged off. I told him he needed to Git Gud, Scrub. No wonder he couldn't hack it in Killing Floor, either.
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I tried Expert Realism in L4D2 once, with a group of guys I played with kinda regularly (in the sense that I wasn't part of their regular foursome, but they still knew me and were familiar with my capabilities).

We didn't make it out of the hotel a single time.

Later I talked to one of the guys and he said that with their usual foursome, they can usually at least beat a campaign, even if it takes them a few tries. And that I wasn't that bad, and it was probably just bad luck for that particular session, don't worry about it, we'll do better next time.

Probably not coincidentally, I never played with them again.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

L4D1, the good old days of a Halforums group almost making it through Expert maps ... ah, memories.

AshburnerX said:
To be fair, the entire game was turned into a pretty decent anime.
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Did not know this! I must find it. Valkyria Chronicles was hella great. Code Name Steam seems like a decent rip-off spiritual successor gameplay-wise, which is one reason I'm looking forward to it.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Batman: Arkham Origins

Yeah, giving this a second chance. There are things I like about it, like the new martial arts enemy type. And I like the overall look and design of the game. The story so far is still okay at best.

What is still the most aggravating is grapnel travel. There are so many times when I'm standing there, scanning the area, seeing scores of places where I SHOULD be able to grapnel onto but nope! The game's like "Durrrrr, we don't see nothing!" One of the most enjoyable things about Arkham City was travelling around. And somehow, Origins fucked that up completely.

 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Batman Arkham Origins

So this game has mostly won me over. Mostly. I'm starting to really dig the story, for example. I really like this portrayal of Joker. He feels more sinister and less goofy than the other Arkham games. Plus, his "level" was really interesting, as @Bowielee pointed out. The game really nails the relationship between Joker and Batman. Like how he's completely confused as to why Batman would ever save his life.

Highlights for me so far have been the first Bane fight (FINALLY a Bane that's not stupidly over-designed where he's a ridiculously huge brute of unrealistic proportions; ditto Killer Croc), the entire sequence with Copperhead, and the Shiva fight. I thought I would hate the new martial arts enemy type when I heard about them, but in fact, they're kinda fun.

The only part so far that I felt was completely unnecessary was the Mad Hatter.

The grapnel travel system still bugs the hell out of me.

There are also a lot of little design choices throughout the game that are either weird or unnecessary. For example, when I needed to get into the bank, there was a door on the rooftop. It took me five minutes and then looking it up online to find that there was a breakable wall nearby. Or being forced to use the remote grapple when just the grapple gun would suffice fine. There's less balance in the need for gadgets throughout the game. And I swear, during some levels, I have to decode a password every five frigging minutes. WAY too much of that crap.

But yeah, despite some being bothered often by niggling design choices, the game has mostly won me over. It still pales in comparison to the other Arkham games, but it's pretty good on its own.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

ThatNickGuy said:
Batman Arkham Origins

So this game has mostly won me over. Mostly. I'm starting to really dig the story, for example. I really like this portrayal of Joker. He feels more sinister and less goofy than the other Arkham games. Plus, his "level" was really interesting, as @Bowielee pointed out. The game really nails the relationship between Joker and Batman. Like how he's completely confused as to why Batman would ever save his life.

Highlights for me so far have been the first Bane fight (FINALLY a Bane that's not stupidly over-designed where he's a ridiculously huge brute of unrealistic proportions; ditto Killer Croc), the entire sequence with Copperhead, and the Shiva fight. I thought I would hate the new martial arts enemy type when I heard about them, but in fact, they're kinda fun.

The only part so far that I felt was completely unnecessary was the Mad Hatter.

The grapnel travel system still bugs the hell out of me.

There are also a lot of little design choices throughout the game that are either weird or unnecessary. For example, when I needed to get into the bank, there was a door on the rooftop. It took me five minutes and then looking it up online to find that there was a breakable wall nearby. Or being forced to use the remote grapple when just the grapple gun would suffice fine. There's less balance in the need for gadgets throughout the game. And I swear, during some levels, I have to decode a password every five frigging minutes. WAY too much of that crap.

But yeah, despite some being bothered often by niggling design choices, the game has mostly won me over. It still pales in comparison to the other Arkham games, but it's pretty good on its own.
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It's like I've said before, being the worst of the batman games is still a pretty good game. And ditto on enjoying their portrayal of the joker. Like Batman, he's an early joker, still growing into himself. He and Batman are changing each other.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

So, Majora's Mask is pretty damn good. Why didn't it sell better back in the day, especially after Ocarina of Time did gangbusters?
 
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