Yeah, I already did the crane part. Or at least the crane part where you lower the bride and pull your car up. I kinda hated how the magnet swung around whenever you moved it, so you'd usually have to wait for it to stop swinging if you needed to be precise. But whatever. I'm at the part just after picking up the crossbow and I took down the energy wall there. Also, I've been doing the achievements in this game for kicks and there's one for destroying 6 gunships, and I've taken down 2, the one at New Little Odessa and the one along the highway, but the game decided to only credit me for one of those kills. Lame.

Try the crane part in Synergy. Goooooooood times.

Also I don't want to spoil it (and nobody else will either) but the last part of the game is also a ton of fun. It pretty much takes what you've been wanting to do the whole game (in my case) and lets you do it.

You were right about that bridge part, awp. There were a couple of parts where I had to kind of drop a little ways onto a catwalk and it was like, "OH GEEZ." That was a cool little section.

God damn, guys. Half-Life 2 has some of the best music I've ever heard in a video game. That ending credits song really did it for me.

I finally beat the Half-Life 2 series, so I went down and got Eternal Sonata. I have to agree with Ival, this game is pretty sweet so far. The English voice acting is a little bit terrible, but the combat is really sweet.

So yeah. I have a PS3 now, kinda. I guess I'll play through Disgaea3, now that I have the opportunity.

Seibei4211 wrote:

I finally beat the Half-Life 2 series, so I went down and got Eternal Sonata. I have to agree with Ival, this game is pretty sweet so far. The English voice acting is a little bit terrible, but the combat is really sweet.

The combat only gets better, so you're in for a real treat.

Yeah, I wanna unlock counterattacks and the second set of special attacks. I'm not gonna be happy about my infinite tactical time going away though. And losing a second on my action gauge is gonna suck.

Azure, do you have a PSN name yet?

My PSN's AK0alaB3ar .

The multiplayer games that I have that I can remember at the moment are:
Call of Duty MW1+2+Black ops, Borderlands+all DLC, Bioshock 2, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2
Blazblue Continuum shift, Tekken 6
Little big planet, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2,
Gran Turismo 5, Dead Nation,

If I have more, I probably let a friend borrow it/them. The rest are single player games.

My ID is thatazureguy

Damn, it seems like you're putting a lot of hours into Eternal Sonata, Selphie. I demand a status update, because I think just seeing you playing it on my list is going to make me find my disc and finish Encore Mode.

wow first

Well, I just started chapter 5 and I can do counterattacks and Harmony Chains now, so those are cool. Counterattacks are cool if you can actually pull them off. Jazz is the best character in the game, so I'm just waiting to get him back. Viola is overpowered and awesome as well. Salsa and March are kinda cool, but they die way too fast. And Claves is the most useless RPG character I've encounted...probably ever. I mean, as far as combat is concerned.

Anyway, FUCK FUGUE. That guy was a baaaastarrrrrrd. I've never seen such a cheap enemy in this game. That was such a difficulty spike and it made me waste so many Angel Trumpets. And you have to fight him with some of the most killable party members in the game. Ugh.

But yeah, I haven't actually put that many hours into it. I tend to play it for a little bit, then pause it for a couple of hours while I do other stuff, then play it some more. The fights are kind of draining and the story isn't really pulling me along, so I don't play for too long at a time. Also, is it just me, or is Fred a pedophile? He's always hanging around the underaged ones more than the adults.

Edit: Oh yeah, and after the holiday rush of games, I'm probably gonna get Star Ocean 4. I was gonna get it instead of Eternal Sonata, but they didn't have it for once.

Star Ocean 4 is awful, make sure you finish Eternal Sonata first.

March is actually really, really good. If you get a good pair of chakrams for her, you should give her a whirl. I know her voice is a little annoying but seriously, she owns. She racks up chains like nobody's business. Though I think that might be me remembering an effect from a specific chakram. Falsetto also owns and is easily my favorite character.

Viola is way fuckin' overpowered though, especially if you can aim her shots across the map. Seriously, her damage output is criminal. My goto boss strategy for like the whole game is send Viola across the map and spam arrow shots into the boss's back or weak spot, whatever.

I think the worst parts of the game is during the parts when everyone is split up and you can't use the party you like. I like the combat system a lot but using characters I don't particularly care for (Beat) is really irritating. Though, by the end of the game, I felt comfortable with pretty much everyone (except Beat).

No, I do use March, mostly because it's one of those split sections you're talking about, but the only thing that bugs me is her attack style. I like how Salsa's attacks are more smooth and consistent. But I like that March can get a nice echo amount from her specials. And I rather don't mind Beat mainly because he can get about 12-16 echoes with very little effort and his long distance specials are decent. I'm not crazy about Falsetto. She's near the bottom of my list at the moment. I like some of her specials, but she doesn't have enough health and doesn't get quite enough echoes. Also, I base a lot of my preference on whether or not the character has really awesome-looking specials, and Jazz has my favorite of anyone's so far. I love how he treats that sword like a twig and gets a ridiculous hit radius. He can almost hit dudes behind him. It's crazy.

And yeah, I'm mostly looking at Star Ocean 4 because I know it has a fucking retarded Plat, so I wanna see how close I can get to that before giving up.

Falsetto gets a gauntlet later that doubles her combo count when she strikes, so each hit is worth 2 hits. Coupled with her insanely fast attack speed and movement speed, she just sort of puts mobs in a blender. Also like all of her good skills cause some sort of knockback/knockdown which is great for reducing the brunt of the next enemy's onslaught. Also Snow Claw looks awesome.

"If you strike a stone, rocks are scattered. If you strike a person, the soul is scattered. Death to both!"

God, Falsetto owns.

That would be pretty good. I still like Jazz for his ability to easily hit two enemies at once and getting two hits per strike. We'll see how awesome she is with those gloves though. I hate waiting until the end of a game for a character to stop sucking though. Apparently Claves is really good when you get her back, but at that point, who cares?

There are a lot of good gauntlets on the way there, too. I think there's one that increases action gauge when you hit an enemy as well, so she gets to throw in a few more punches each round. Also a couple that slow an enemy while attacking.

Dude, Retto's best weapon sounds so good. 100% crit rate and action gauge increases with hits? Awesome. Actually, that second effect is so subtle that I don't even bother with it. I've got a Pocket Watch that does that and I put it on Salsa, but it barely did anything. Falsetto's weapon really is probably one of the best weapons though. I can't wait to get an accessory that lets me do that so I can put it on March.

Oh my God, Ival, do you have any expert advice on actually succeeding in a counterattack? I know I can only counter the first attack of an enemy's turn, but it's so random when they'll ACTUALLY let me counterattack. I can't predict it, so I can't be fast enough to counterattack. I've pulled it off once and that was pure luck. I'm thinking I'll just stop trying forever because the payoff isn't big enough.

Well, the counterattack sound is usually what I focus on. If you're in a situation where you'll die if you don't guard, just don't even bother with the counterattack. Not sure if you're at the point where your buttons start getting randomized after every enemy action yet; I can't remember which party level that's at.

The payoff is pretty huge, but the risk is about just as high.There are plenty of monsters that can easily wipe out a character in a single assault, and if that character's already damaged it can probably be done through their guard. Completely cancelling an enemies' attack and getting a free quick turn is really nice. Especially when you're dealing with asshole bosses. I think the more you get used to it, you'll find you actually have a bit of time to decide between counter and guard. Of course, it requires you to be very familiar with boss timings as well. I wouldn't even fathom counterattacks unless I know the timing of the enemies' attack from having guarded it a few times. Also, if you're going to die regardless, might as well gamble on that counter.

Oh yeah, as for actually performing it, I hover over the guard button, then if I hear the counter sound I mash counterattack if possible. As gay as this sounds, every now and then I get like a brief moment of clarity when it happens and the counter feels pretty natural. Othertimes I just settle for a guard.

Yeah, see, before I unlocked counterattack, I eventually started just watching the word Guard and hit it when it lit up. Waiting for it to pop up took too long and sometimes I had no idea who was even being attacked and the camera angles would fuck it up even if I did know. And the sound appears a little bit after the word popped up. But this method doesn't really work that well with counterattack, because now I'm used to just hitting guard the second I see the word light up. Sometimes I'll see Counterattack and hit Guard anyway out of habit. Then if I try to hit counterattack instead, it's not available and I get hit. The timing for some attacks is ridiculous. I don't even have time to hit Guard sometimes, let alone decide whether or not I should hit Counterattack instead.

Also, it's level 6 where you get Moving Command. I think it's optional on the first playthrough, so I will probably skip it cause a friend told me you can change party levels in Encore.

The best is the archer chick because of her long distance == greater damage ability

rapes bosses

raaaaapes bosses

Seibei4211 wrote:

Also, it's level 6 where you get Moving Command. I think it's optional on the first playthrough, so I will probably skip it cause a friend told me you can change party levels in Encore.

That's a terrible idea. Party level 6 is the best. The randomized commands takes a little while to get used to but you get an insane amount of item slots, the ability to do 6 harmony chains, and echoes carry over between battles.

How is that a terrible idea? The first playthrough is absolutely useless and a waste of time. The real game doesn't even start until Encore mode. If I have to lose all of my items and level progress, why should I give a shit about the first playthrough? I'm getting the score pieces and costumes and stuff, but if it doesn't carry over, I don't care about it.

And I end most battles with a special anyway, so carrying over 0 echoes isn't very helpful.

Oh, and you unlock Level 6 in Mysterious Union, so I'd rather Claves stayed dead as long as possible.

Uhh, specials still build echoes? Unless you finish every fight with a 1 hit special. Which seems a bit arbitrary!

And it's a terrible idea because that means you're stuck with party level 5 in encore mode until you reach Mysterious Unison again.

I've been doing pretty fine without Level 6 so far. And I usually end the match with a healing spell if I can, just to stay fresh. Viola's the only one I use Harmony Chains with so I can Sacred Strike/Healing Arrow. When I get 3 chains, I could throw in something else though. But even if I did start the match with Echoes, it's not very helpful anyway. Battles already take too much concentration as it is, so I don't feel like adding more to it. It's not like I'm playing this game because I'm totally into it. It's not something I feel like mastering or completing to 100%. I'm just killing time until school starts up again.

Oh man, Falsetto really is pretty good. Tyr's Left Arm (action gauge increases with hits) + Werewolf Choker (double echoes) + Speed Shoes = 32 Echoes in one turn. And I've gotten better at counterattacks. I just pay attention during the first attack of an enemy's turn. Counterattacks got really awesome now that I can use special attacks in them.

Falsetto's the bitchy one with the platinum-ish hair, right? Blue dress, if I recall? She was kind of cool.

It's been a while since I've played it.

Yeah, she's the one. She completely sucks all the way up until the point where she gets Tyr's Left Arm, then she starts kicking monumental ass. Serenade is pretty beast, too. I underestimated her. Her Expello attack can do over 140k damage with 32 echoes. Crazy.

Falsetto was always great, you were just blind. I mean, you liked Jazz. Come on.

Jazz is still probably my favorite. No one can do anything to match his attack radius, he's got crazy attack power, powerful/flashy specials, ridiculous amounts of HP and defense, and he's not bad at echoes. Also, he's just a badass. The only thing he sucks at is speed. When you first get Falsetto, she's no better at echoes than Beat, and at least Beat can do that from across the map. And all of her other stats were weak aside from speed.

I know another person who's played this game to death and his favorite is Fred for some reason. And he really likes Polka because of Blossom Shower.

Falsetto still has kickin' damage, and being across the map only matters on like the first attack. Once she's in there she's in there. I really don't care about defense and as long as someone has average HP that's workable for me. Offense is way more important.

Eh, whatever. All I'm really getting from this is pretty much everyone is viable and Viola is still op as fuck.

So I got Party Level 6 and this is waaaaay not as bad as I thought it'd be. When I heard of Moving Command, I thought it meant that it changed your shit around after EVERY attack. Like you couldn't do a combo without changing buttons. But since it only happens during a Harmony Chain and it moves right after you hit the right button, it's easy. I can still mash on the Special button to do a chain like I usually do. Easy, but annoying. Also, no one mentioned that you keep echoes after a Harmony chain, too.

Ok, I didn't know Encore mode was also a difficulty increase. Good thing I went for Party Level 6. Ival was totally right about that. I was right about Encore being the real game though. This is what an RPG is supposed to be like. You have to grind and work to be stronger than the enemies instead of walking in and being able to destroy everyone. There might even be some sort of strategy involved with some bosses. Cause seriously, I beat Annihilator in less than 2 minutes with no items and that's ridiculous. Maybe he might manage to kill someone on Encore.

Yeah, encore is the serious stuff. I still need to finish my run actually, I think Tuba on the bridge killed my spirit and motivation previously.

Yeah, I read that that guy was serious business. I'm gonna have to grind it up like a bitch to get through him. If only the game didn't split up your party all the time. Like now that I know Falsetto is good, it's gonna piss me off when I won't be allowed to use her forever.

Seibei4211 wrote:

You have to grind and work to be stronger than the enemies

that's the hallmark of a badly designed RPG, actually. Knowledge and strategy should be able to trump modest level differences. If a game requires you to grind in order to succeed, it's just Dragon Warrior not fun

Well, it's not so much that you have to, it's more that lenience is reduced to nearly zero on encore, so if you're not on point with your counter attacks and guards you'll probably end up dead.

Eternal Sonata is way more skill based than it is level based, aside from learning techniques, anyhow. If you can survive a round by the enemies you can probably win any fight; the rest is just threat mitigation.

When you guard/counter every attack and you're still getting massive damage, I don't see how that has anything to do with skill. And that wouldn't be a problem if you could actually heal yourself without items between battles, but I can only hold 99 Peach Cookies and that goes down quickly after a dozen fights. So when I got to Fort Fermata and kept getting brutally hurt after every single fight, I knew I wouldn't be able to get through the whole thing. I had to run all the way back to Agogo Village and kill goats until Viola hit level 15 for Heal Arrow. Now I'm doing pretty good. Took me a few hours to do all of that though. Very annoying.

Because levels wouldn't even be a factor if you weren't guarding/countering; you would just be dead. Levels are really only important for learning critical techniques.

HP and speed. I wouldn't want to be at 900 max HP still and I wouldn't want to attack last in every battle. And I have to be at a high level for guarding attacks to even save me from massive damage. And I'm not just talking about one single fight. I'm talking about when you have to fight a dozen fights in a row and they all take a chunk out of your HP with every fight. Before I got Heal Arrow, that wasn't going to ever work. I literally could not hold enough healing items to get me through that dungeon and Fred/Polka friggin' suuuuck at healing at level 12. The more accessories I get and the more abilities I get, the easier it'll be to get through this, but until I get the game-breaking Falsetto set-up, it's gonna be annoying.

Man, Atelier Rorona is such an awesome game. Not really challenging but still pretty fun regardless.

I don't know how I've gone this long without playing it.

Atelier Rorona was the first game I've ever gotten 100% on. I enjoyed it as well!

I bought Agarest War Zero, Last Rebellion, and Alice: Madness Returns within this month.

Agarest War Zero was.... I don't know... not worth 60 dollars imo. Battles are long as heck -_-
Last Rebellion is mehhh, doing the same thing every battle gets boring. 15 dollar game is 15 dollar game.
Alice is pretty cool, Nightmare difficulty is fun to play on. Love the combat and how it goes all slow-mo when slashing enemies :>

But omg, White Knight Chronicles 2!!! Can't wait!

Edit: Oh shi- Atelier Totori in September as well!!

You guys barely buy any PSN games huh? Shame on you. I've bought Outland and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes a week ago, awesome stuff. Still need to get PixelJunk Shooter 2.

Btw. do you only buy games with anime-styled characters Mafiamaster ?_? You might want to check out some reviews before "wasting" 60 $.

Nharox wrote:

You guys barely buy any PSN games huh? Shame on you.

I'd buy Wizardry if it were actually available in my region.

adam2046 wrote:

Nharox wrote:

You guys barely buy any PSN games huh? Shame on you.

I'd buy Wizardry if it were actually available in my region.

Do what I did, made a faux US account and just get online delivered $20/50 PSN cards.
I also have a Japanese account as well. :D

It's how I got my 'copy' of Record of Agarest War.
If you need help setting one up give me buzz as I've helped a few friends out before.

Nharox wrote:

You guys barely buy any PSN games huh? Shame on you. I've bought Outland and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes a week ago, awesome stuff. Still need to get PixelJunk Shooter 2.

Btw. do you only buy games with anime-styled characters Mafiamaster ?_? You might want to check out some reviews before "wasting" 60 $.

I own Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, so...

I didn't even gameshare that one, I actually threw money at it. I usually don't throw money at things.

ampzz wrote:

Do what I did, made a faux US account and just get online delivered $20/50 PSN cards.
I also have a Japanese account as well.

That's too much effort just to play a game that should already be on the AU PSN and has no real reason for not being on there other than our shitty ratings board.

adam2046 wrote:

That's too much effort just to play a game that should already be on the AU PSN and has no real reason for not being on there other than our shitty ratings board.

The games are cheaper, believe me and I also get better download speed for the US PSN for some strange reason.
Oh, let's not forgetting how regularly updated our PSN Store is..

ampzz wrote:

Oh, let's not forgetting how regularly updated our PSN Store is..

Every Thursday?

Nharox wrote:

You guys barely buy any PSN games huh? Shame on you. I've bought Outland and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes a week ago, awesome stuff. Still need to get PixelJunk Shooter 2.

Btw. do you only buy games with anime-styled characters Mafiamaster ?_? You might want to check out some reviews before "wasting" 60 $.

There's just honestly not enough good games that are released on the PSN that I feel like spending money on. I'm always looking out for good ones, but the PSN just doesn't have a lot of great exclusives. I do have, like, 15 or so games that I bought, but it's rare for awesome games to come out.

And yeah, I don't think I've ever seen Mafiamaster play anything but anime-style/RPG games. But apparently he's played a grand total of four games that aren't.

True enough since I don't like fps games.

Nharox wrote:

You might want to check out some reviews before "wasting" 60 $.

It's fine, if it's an anime style game with a cute girl on the front, I'd buy it.

Mafiamaster has the best taste in games.

Also, Atelier Rorona is so much concentrated own that I am without a doubt getting Atelier Totori on day one.

I have to wait over a week for The Baconing. I haven't spent the full $15 on a Deathspank game yet, and though Deathspank wasn't worth 15 (definitely worth 7.50 though) Thongs of Virtue was, so I'm hoping The Baconing is at least as good.

and even though I got Dead Nation for free I play the shit out of that game I have completed it at least a dozen times

Yeah, see, that's weird. I thought DeathSpank 1 was better than 2. I just didn't like how they replaced my crossbow with inferior guns. But The Baconing should be pretty beast. The Hero Cards look like they do a lot more things and everything just looks improved in general. I mean, it looks like they didn't just make this at the same time as the other two games, so there should be some gameplay improvements to make it different compared to the others. Like now you can reflect projectiles and stuff. Can't wait for that.

I thought Thongs of Virtue was more value than Deathspank because I remember the game being 2 to 3 times as long.

also pirate ships

This just might be the end of the rope for my stupid, God forsaken Encore run on Eternal Sonata. That pirate ship was so fucking ridiculous and Dolce was even worse. It took me five tries or something to finally get lucky enough to beat her. But now I have to beat this stupid motherfucker in the mirror and he's so damn OP. Even if you block his stuff, he takes away half of your HP. And he almost always goes two turns in a row. It doesn't take a mathmetician to know that equals fucked.

Edit: Wow, I beat it. My torture continues.

So...I was looking through the US RPG list on GameFAQs to see if I could find another RPG that'll take me several dozens of hours to beat like Eternal Sonata. Cause, you know, I'm trying to save up some money for the fall games, so I can't spend $50/$60 on a 10 hour game.

Anyway, I found two games that look pretty interesting, but one isn't out yet. I look at stuff like Cross Edge, Hyperdimension Neptunia, Trinity Universe, Atelier Rorona, etc. Basically all of the games Mafiamaster has played. The one that looks the coolest, though, is Ar tonelico Qoga: Knights of Knell. (By God, I think I spelled the whole thing right from memory. *checks* Oh, nope. It's Ciel.) I almost think I should buy that online though. It might be embarassing if someone actually knows what that game is.

The other one I'm looking at is Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny. Even though it's a friggin' Harvest Moon game, the combat is in that Kingdom Hearts/Nier style, so whatever. It's at least worth a look.

I heard Ar Tonelico 2 was straight up better than 3, so I haven't gone out of my way to play 3 yet so that I can preserve my love for the series. And by series I mean just 2. Also, you should stay the hell away from every other game you mentioned in that anime list (except Atelier Rorona).

I didn't even know a ps3 Rune Factory was even a thing, though. I played like the second one on DS and thought it was horseshit but I heard the 3rd one was good. Have literally heard nothing about the ps3 one though so I'll probably end up waiting a while before I consider taking the plunge on that.

Disgaea 4 is out soon anyway, what else do you need.

I thought Cross Edge was pretty fine, though once you master the entire system you'll clear any boss in the first turn with decent equipment. Haven't got the end-game content yet though, so...

Trinity Universe was a sleepfest. Too easy, I didn't bother getting True End. Might get that in the end.

Hyperdimension Neptunia isn't so bad, but once again once you master the system all fights become easy as heck. The lack of work put into it is painfully obvious though.

Atelier Rorona is awesome. Can't beat the final boss. Yet. Will get down to it once I clear my other RPGs. Which will never happen.

Ar Tonelico Qoga is...troll, in a good way.

To add to my problems, Disgaea 4 AND Atelier Totori are coming out.

If your PS3 is backwards compatible with PS2 and you want to play an RPG, you're better off looking at the PS2. Plenty of strong titles there.

I looked at sample battles from each of those games, and the only ones I liked were the two I mentioned. They're the only basically real-time battle systems out of all of those games. Since there aren't any PS3 Tales titles in the US right now (I think), I had to try something new. I forgot to really even look at Disgaea 4, but it's still a tactical RPG, and I'm still not really into those. I looked at a battle for Atelier and I think the voice actors would drive me insane. That, and it's turn-based and what have you. But yeah, Rune Factory 3 is the one coming to PS3, apparently. It's the same as the Wii one, I think.

Anyway, yeah, if you've got any other suggestions that I haven't looked at, let me know, Ival. Cause you suggested Resonance of Fate and that's probably the best RPG I've ever played.

awp: I've got my PS2 still cause my PS3 isn't BC. I'm trying to find new games though. I'm trying to see if there are any new series that I can look forward to in the future. I'm not desperate enough for games to look that far back yet.

Persona 4 is one of the best JRPGs I've ever played

fwiw

Atelier Rorona really isn't about battling at all. I'm honestly not even sure if I'd recommend it to you. I mean, it's still one of my favorite games ever, but that's mainly due to its characters/scenes, and not so much the gameplay.

I'm surprised you hold me in such high regard, Selphie. Though, if you haven't played persona 4 you should seriously play that. And persona 3. It doesn't matter how old they are, just fucking play them. Persona 5 should be coming in the future, especially now that Catherine is done and everything.

Do you mean Rune Factory 4?

The third one was released on DS, and Oceans was a spinoff title for the Wii, although I think they also released a demo for another wii version that didn't get finished...

I'm slowly working my way to finishing Persona 4, so I can be ready for the animation.

And wow, Naoto is a pretty cool reverse trap. Might cosplay as her but I'm probably late to the party.

Also, battles in Atelier Rorona will never bother me because Cordelia is a fucking loli gangster. This is from Totori but whatever, she's only slightly less awesome in Rorona.

Azure_Kyte wrote:

Do you mean Rune Factory 4?

The third one was released on DS, and Oceans was a spinoff title for the Wii, although I think they also released a demo for another wii version that didn't get finished...

Yeah, it's Oceans, except they're calling it Tides of Destiny. And it's coming out in a month, on the same day as the Team ICO Collection, which means I won't be looking at it until later.

Ivalset wrote:

Atelier Rorona really isn't about battling at all. I'm honestly not even sure if I'd recommend it to you. I mean, it's still one of my favorite games ever, but that's mainly due to its characters/scenes, and not so much the gameplay.

I'm surprised you hold me in such high regard, Selphie. Though, if you haven't played persona 4 you should seriously play that. And persona 3. It doesn't matter how old they are, just fucking play them. Persona 5 should be coming in the future, especially now that Catherine is done and everything.

I've looked at a shitload of Persona 3 walkthrough videos, and the battles aren't bad, but you gotta spend so much time with the simulation stuff. Like, you really do or you can't get better personas. But yeah, those battles are fairly strategical, but it is turn-based. The next turn-based game I'll probably get is FFXIII-2, if I get it. I need to borrow TWEWY from my friend to finally see what all the fuss is with that game, too.

Honestly, the non-tartarus stuff doesn't take that much time and you honestly don't need any of the max level personas. Except maybe emperor, and that's really only for one strategy. It doesn't even feel like it's that time consuming. The days go by quickly and you'll be getting a bunch of event scenes and shit which should be entertaining at least.

It's not like the plot is shitty, either.

I want more games like Resonance of Fate. You get 3 characters. That's it. You get three kinds of weapons. It's simple, yet incredibly fun and strategic. Then you get games like Eternal Sonata that give you 12. Then you get Persona where there's a hundred something personas and even the same persona can have different skill sets. There are only 3 playable characters in Ar tonelico, right? And then there's the...what's-it that does the song magic bullshit I don't even know. But there's just one of those in a battle. That sounds fine. Also, I don't understand it yet, but I like how the integrate the music into the battle. Really different.

But the same persona will generally have similar skill sets. And you can only change persona for the main character anyway; the other three party members have fixed personas and fixed skill sets (though you can choose what gets overwritten in 4, there aren't any hard decisions on that front).

Also, I'm pretty sure purchasing Qoga will put you on several different pedophile watchlists. I just care about your well being, Selphie.

Just promise me that if you play Qoga you'll go back and play Ar Tonelico 2 sometime.

Yeah, yeah, I know about the teammates getting the same stuff. And really, I guess you only need personas that can do all of the elemental attacks. And you'd want to have two that can do a healing move for you and stuff. I hate how you get tired in that game if you fight too much though. You gotta grind over several days, which hurts your social life and stuff.

I know a guy who bought Dead or Alive. In person. I might send him in to get the game for me. He's actually heard of the game and wants to try it, too. I really wish the chicks in that game didn't have to be so young-looking, but whatever, I'm just in it for the combat. And that's exactly what I'll tell them in court.

You said Ar tonelico 3 was the first one to be done in 3D, right? And it's the first one with a real-time battle system. Golden Sun is the only one that gets away with being a pixelated, turn-based battle system. I was surprised as hell that Cross Edge was 2D, too.

Seibei4211 wrote:

I hate how you get tired in that game if you fight too much though.

I'm actually the opposite. And I was disappointed when I found out SP-recovery items and the fox are not that hard to come by. My first time playing through Yukiko's dungeon I wanted to push onward as far as I could, but each floor is more dangerous than the last and my party was getting increasingly tired, and there was a huge risk/reward going on there. The lack of mid-dungeon savepoints was also a welcomed aspect. Don't exactly know how I feel about cleared-floor warps though. If you had to push through the entire dungeon to complete it (as oppose to clear 4 floors, rest, then start on floor 5 as it is) it'd be a bit more immersive.

If you're worried about your party being tired and having to grind over several days, two things:
- Grinding isn't really necessary until around GAME (though Yukiko gave me quite a challenge my first time)
- SP (aka party fatigue) becomes a non-issue fairly early on in the game. By the third or fourth dungeon.

Wow, look here Selphie, Golden Sun is a piece of shit game compared to Ar Tonelico 2. It's kid stuff. The battle system in AT2 owns hard because if your timing is good enough, you can perfect guard like everything and come out unscathed. (The game actually breaks a little if you specialize your characters with effects that slacken the perfect guard timing, but whatever) Plus each character has a bunch of different attacks with various properties and there's just a whole lot of fucking fun going on. I won't allow you to compare that piece of shit Golden Sun to the masterpiece that is Ar Tonelico 2. Not on my watch, nigga.

As for persona, a distinction needs to be made. Persona 3 has a tiredness mechanic, persona 4 does not. The mechanic in persona 3 is related to your character level and pretty much stops being relevant past level 20 or so. You'll still get tired after storyline boss missions and other random things, but those end up just dictating when you can journey into Tartarus, not how long you stay there. Which I realize isn't really optimal either, but it's a hell of a lot better than the latter. As far as SP management is concerned, there are plenty of skills that can help you manage that, as awp lightly touched on.

If there's a guard system like in Eternal Sonata, then that's ok. I do like having some skill-based control even when it's not my turn. And if there are ways to lengthen the perfect guard time, that's even better. That's what I wish Eternal Sonata had. Anyway, I partly like Golden Sun for the characters, especially in the first two, but I mostly like it for the kickass, flashy special attacks. Does AT2 have awesome, flashy attacks? Actually, if I like that stuff, maybe I really should look at Disgaea 3 or 4. Oh, and will I get flagged as a pedophile for getting that game or is that just with AT3?

I'm guessing Persona 4 still has the whole switching between battles and simulation game thing, right? The other thing I saw about Persona 3 was the fact that the only hard fights were against bosses. When you have normal enemies, you just hit them with their weakness and the enemy pretty much doesn't even get a turn after a while. I've seen about 3 months worth of in-game time, and it's been that way every time so far. The bosses take strategy, but the normal ones don't seem very fun.

Yeah, that's generally what happens in Persona 3/4...if you know their weaknesses and can exploit them effectively. Also assuming they don't get advantage on you for whatever reason. It's part of why you should play on hard mode (or maniac for P3P). Persona is easy as long as you abide by its rules. If you don't it'll bitchslap you with instant kills or worse, like party fear -> instant kill on feared targets.

Ar Tonelico 2 was pretty flashy, yeah. I'd post a link to a video but I forgot how hilariously annoying the voice acting gets, especially when you're not actively playing it and your mind can turn it off for the most part.

I looked up a gameplay video for AT2 and ohmigodohmigodohmigod. At the end of the battle he did a special attack with Mr. Big Sword and holy fucking balls of shit, dude. That was insane. I don't even know if I want AT3 anymore. All that game has is fucking cake and stars and shit. But whatever, I'll still get it. I think the Sailor Moon'd clothes are pretty hilarious. I might have trouble getting AT2 anyway. And it's gonna be $30 since I can't get it at Gamestop. I'll have to buy it from Amazon or something. It's probably worth it though. The game looks pretty sick.

Amarie's is the best. I never got sick of seeing that. Plus her normal attack skills in battle are cool, like one of them grants your entire party 100% crit rate for that attack phase, and she has another one that does an AoE attack (most other basic attacks are single target), and she has a healing attack. She just owns.



But yeah, it's a really fucking solid game. The voices might get to be a bit much, but the overall music in the game is top notch and the gameplay is pretty excellent (if not a bit too easy to break).

I should mention though, there's one lategame boss that had some kind of issue in the localized version, where the game would crash after like 3 turns in combat, when he used a special attack. That sounds pretty bad but it's actually quite possible to do that without much work. I'm not sure if they reprinted the game with that error fixed or not, just saying don't let that deter you because it's pretty easy to get around.

Yeah, I read about that bug. Like you have to do 40k damage in three rounds or it'll do that move and freeze your game. And apparently it happens if you fight the same person in optional battles, too. Seems kinda weird, but whatever.

Seibei4211 wrote:

Actually, if I like that stuff, maybe I really should look at Disgaea 3 or 4. Oh, and will I get flagged as a pedophile for getting that game or is that just with AT3?

nope

there's like no children in that series. I'd still recommend starting with Disgaea 1 (PSP if available) because of the awesome characters/writing/irreverent plot. The initial main cast of Laharl/Flonne/Etna get less exposure in each iteration (which Disgaea 4 apparently makes up for) but they're the best cast in any game, past present and future. Don't want to undersell it.

Eh, Disgaea 3's story is kind of terrible, but the setting and culture are at the very least amusing. It's basically a bizarro University where students are considered honor students if they skip class and cause trouble, and all the teachers are hellbent on never doing any work. Gameplay's fun, attacks are very flashy - but chances are, before long you'll have them disabled by default and only enable them when you want to see new abilities.

Flashy though. And if you like character/stat building, Disgaea is unparalleled. Final Fantasy thinks it's so great for "breaking the damage cap" (adding an extra digit) but in Disgaea there's no cap at all. Your level caps at 9999, but this is the only cap you'll hit without trying - individual stats like Strength, Vitality, Speed etc DO have a cap (20 million iirc) but it requires quite a big investment in aptitude building / weapon upgrading. I don't think HP has a hard-coded cap, but the "cap" is basically however high all your combined buffs can be. Most of my characters sat around 14 million or something; HP is pretty useless end-game. If you like big numbers, I don't think anything legitimately tops Disgaea. Damage can reach in the trillions if you're really good (and Japanese) and you can pile up so much money from grinding that the game just flat out stops keeping track after a certain number of digits and just says "A LOT"

Stats aren't really "inflated", either - you start the game at level 1 dishing out 25 damage a hit. By the midway point you're probably dealing 2000-ish, and by the main story's end, maybe 15k. Lots to do post-game though. Personally I found the post-game storyline more enjoyable than the main game storyline anyway. But I have a soft spot for the original trio.

awp wrote:

Seibei4211 wrote:

Actually, if I like that stuff, maybe I really should look at Disgaea 3 or 4. Oh, and will I get flagged as a pedophile for getting that game or is that just with AT3?

nope

Oh sorry, I was referring to AT2. Mentioning Disgaea was sort of a side thought. I know my friend liked to play Disgaea 2 and I watched a bit of it and the attacks were really sweet. I don't think I'd ever get tired of them. At least I never did in Golden Sun.

So anyway, I'm on a quest to get AT3. I had that game in my hands a couple of weeks ago, probably when I was in there to get Eternal Sonata. They don't have it at all now. Ridiculous. Who would've thought that someone else would want that game two weeks after I saw it? Anyway, I'll have it soon, but I'm still trying to beat Encore mode in Eternal Sonata. I just hit chapter 5. Fugue can go screw himself. And Dolce, too, for that matter.

Ar tonelico 3's mine now. I didn't know it came with an art book and soundtrack. Nice little bonus. Also, I didn't know until recently just how much dating sim bullshit was in this game, but whatever, because the battle system looks even better than I originally thought. Can't wait.

Until you realize you can just cheese every fight with items, completely eliminating all challenge from the game!

There's a New Game+ that keeps your levels, so I knew it was inevitably going to get easy. But I don't really give a shit about challenges too much anyway. Cause then you get shit like Eternal Sonata's Encore mode. Resonance of Fate had some challenges early on and that was fun. Golden Sun had some challenging fights in the first two games and those were fun. And if I really wanted to, I could do Hard mode, right?

So I finally, finally beat Eternal Sonata and Encore mode and all of that. But riddle me this: how did I manage to spend 50 hours in the first playthrough, but only 45 in the second? I spent, like, 3 hours doing Encore only stuff and I spend loads of hours just grinding for levels. I got all of the same stuff that I got in the first playthrough. I even spent more time developing photos and stuff. It makes no sense. But whatever. Encore mode got ridiculously easy near the end.

So yeah, once I finish The Baconing, Ar tonelico is next. I'll have to play it when I'm not playing Dead Island and Resistance 3 and stuff, but it's next. Oh, and I borrowed TWEWY, but I don't think I'll play it front to back because I can't erase my friend's save and I don't wanna dick around with character levels and stuff.

man I want the baconing

I wonder how long till it drops to 7.50

Dude, The Baconing is pretty damn good so far. Like it takes the best parts of the first two games, then adds some extra stuff. Crossbows are back and most of the guns are gone. Grenades are still here though. Shield Bashing/Reflecting is pretty nice. And now the Hero Cards do better stuff. Like when you go up the ranks for a category, it's not just an additional 5% of whatever. The first rank of one of them was 5% speed increase, but the second rank added a 15% eating speed increase on the same category. So that's pretty cool. Also, the game is just as funny as ever.

Oh man, Ival. I'm surprised at just how much I like Ar tonelico Qoga. Like holy crap, this is a cool game. It's so weird though, because the things I thought I wouldn't like are actually my favorite. The Cosmospheres are pretty awesome, Talk Topics are fun, and I really love Synthesis. I think it's really cool that I get to pick the names for my items and stuff. Now the battle system is cool and all, but it seems like no matter what difficulty I put it on, the game refuses to put out a challenge. It's hard to do three purges when they die so fast. So yeah, you were right about the game being easy. But whatever, the rest of the game makes up for the battles. Also, I did not know this game let you use Japanese voice actors. Best option in the game.

On a non-RPG note, the LBP2 Move pack comes out next week, and goddamn does it make me want to get a Move. That paint tool in particular has me intrigued. I was planning on just buying the main Move controller and plugging it into the Dual Shock, but then I remembered you have to pay extra for the Eye camera. I need to make some money.

Seibei4211 wrote:

Oh man, Ival. I'm surprised at just how much I like Ar tonelico Qoga. Like holy crap, this is a cool game. It's so weird though, because the things I thought I wouldn't like are actually my favorite. The Cosmospheres are pretty awesome, Talk Topics are fun, and I really love Synthesis. I think it's really cool that I get to pick the names for my items and stuff. Now the battle system is cool and all, but it seems like no matter what difficulty I put it on, the game refuses to put out a challenge. It's hard to do three purges when they die so fast. So yeah, you were right about the game being easy. But whatever, the rest of the game makes up for the battles. Also, I did not know this game let you use Japanese voice actors. Best option in the game.

You're going to love the second game, then.

Also, probably Atelier Rorona/Totori too.

I didn't know you were such an anime, Selphie.

Ivalset wrote:

You're going to love the second game, then.

Also, probably Atelier Rorona/Totori too.

I didn't know you were such an anime, Selphie.

I didn't know I was either. I thought I'd hate all of this dialogue bullshit, but I really like it. I'll probably take a second look at Atelier since it's made by the same guys and all. Still not sure about the battle system in that though. Oh, and Yurisica is pretty beast so far. There's not a whole lot of difference between the personas I have right now, but she's a bit of a badass.

those Ar Tonelico games look pretty homo, not gonna lie

Didn't you buy Cross Edge?

I didn't even know disgaea 4 came out today fuck.

yes right AFTER the long weekend

dicks

This is the worst time to not have money.

Yo foulcoon hook a nigga up

awp wrote:

yes right AFTER the long weekend

dicks

I missed out on fallen angel flonne because I had no idea the game was coming out. Apparently gamestops that stocked the premium edition had extra codes for people who bought the premium edition. My local gamestop only was shipped 2 copies though and 1 preorder code. ironically it was the cashiers roommate. I got the display case copy :V

Kunoichi's were removed and are DLC, this is the biggest dick move.

Probably gonna buy a million DLC's becuase NISA makes fun as fuck PSP games that nobody buys.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
King of Fighters XIII
Uncharted 3
Disgaea 4
Dark Souls

Man, the end of this year will add even more games to my PS3 backlog (I'll wait for a price drop though and I have to import it anyway). Disgaea 4 might be my first one of the series, love the drawn characters. And I still have to get Catherine, where's my EU release?