What are you Playing?

Nobodyman

You should give Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars a try after that. It has FM sound and gives you infinite lives, so the experience is much smoother.

I actually do have it and I played the first level of it and…well, it's a different gameplay experience to be sure. But yes, it is at least much more forgiving.

UPDATE: It was a thoroughly nerve-wracking experience, but I managed to beat Alex Kidd in Miracle World. The solution to that room with the spikes in the water is the most counter-intuitive bullcrap I have ever seen.

Still, I suppose the game had a certain charm to it.

darktravis

@Nobodyman:

So I've been playing quite a few games recently since I splurged on Steam and the Wii Shop, including Earthworm Jim 2, Castlevania Adventure Rebirth, and the Bit.Trip series. But the one I've been spending most of my time on is Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

And let me just say, that game is fucking ridiculous. To paint a picture, you start off with three lives, Alex dies after one hit, you have a weird punch attack with an incredibly small hit box, the controls are slippery and unwieldy as fuck, and if at any point in the game you get a game over you have to start over from the very beginning (unless you have $400 and know the secret continue code). There's no check points, no warps, you have to do the whole game over.

God, old school games could be really fuckin' stupid.

With Miracle World being the first game I ever owned (due to it being inbulit into MSII), I completely and utterly understand each and every word you just said.

lr-hr-rh

Still playing Ni No Kuni.
…
Wow am I bad at Ni No Kuni.
Just arrived at the snow place around level 30-ish hunting for some magic stone and roosters are apparently the bane of my existence.
Start battle --> 3x Roosters --> 3x Slice and Dice --> ...goodbye Oliver --> switch to Esther --> ...Esther has no MP --> ...don't switch to Swaine --> Die --> And so on
I mean. I figure I should probably put a familiar in my team that can use Defend and has good defense. But wherever I go on the world map off the beaten path the monsters are smacking me around (or I have to dump most of my MP using my best tricks to kill them for a piddling amount of XP) so I don't know if this is supposed to be the cue to kickoff some sort of grinding montage or if there's some mechanic I'm just not incorporating as I should be

Oh well.

Foolio

You do sound a little underleveled, especially depending on the order in which you're doing things / how far you are in the game. Have you been going after sidequests in general? There are also certain rare familiars in the wild that give craploads of experience. In the ice area in particular I remember benefiting a lot this last run from the right elemental weapons and armor.

As for familiars to get, you could probably benefit both from a good defender and something with really high DPS. Again depending on how far you are there are different things you can catch… but on the defensive side some of the best tanks are available early, such as the Monolith line. I could give more specific advice if needed/wanted.

lr-hr-rh

Yeah I've been having trouble getting a gauge of my progress in regards to whether I'm over/underlevelled. I've already got the stone from the ghost ship and didn't really have problems with that or with any of the previous bosses (my usual gauges for being under/overlevelled in a jrpg). I've been trying to do most of the sidequests I come across (assuming you mean the ones you get from errand boards, bounty hunts and the like), but up till recently I was also playing the game with a friend of mine who is a lot more main story focussed so I've not been exploring as much as I would like to.

I probably need to hunt for more familiars but I'm kinda leery on the time investment required. Most of my familiars are second stage, around level 30 and there definitely seems to be an exponential drop-off in the XP boost lower-levelled familiars get from beating higher-levelled enemies, but if I can find these rare familiars that give more experience I'd definitely like to do some shuffling with my current party. My main DPS guys are my Cutpurrse and Drone Bumbler. I've got a Monolith with Swaine but it only recently learned a trick to take advantage of its decent mag attack stat (and I don't really trust the AI to make much use of it either way) and I'm not overly comfortable switching away from Oliver to control it directly as I figure the AI will just piss away all of my MP (I mean, Slice and Dice is great for me when I want to use it but I definitely wouldn't trust the AI to figure when its a good time to make that 33 MP investment!). I'm also not sure how much of a difference the compatability bonus makes in the grand scheme of things =P

Overall I think I just need to probably slow things down and look around a bit more, maybe do some side quests (although I'm stacking up merit cards atm with nothing to spend them on >.< ) and mess around with party balance. I just have the recent frustration of getting repeatedly sliced and diced on the brain atm hahaha. I'd definitely be appreciative of any advice you'd be willing to share, one of my current sticking concerns is whether it's worth it sticking with familiar lines like Monolith that level up way slower than most of the other ones.

Foolio

The main purpose of throwing something like Monolith on Swaine is that he switches it into battle immediately when you give the all-out defense command (which you should be abusing the fuck out of since it's the only way to make the AI survive). It's not necessary for it to ever attack or use MP; in fact you can probably disable all offensive tricks. Honestly from the midgame on I tend to spend most serious battles in a state of either all-out defense or all-out attack.

About experience and slow leveling. Usually things that level up very slowly do so because they gain way more stats per level, and have a lower level cap. Most familiars in final stage will go to level 99. But the Monolith line caps at 50. Some others even lower, at 30 for example. The most extreme case is a familiar that has a max level of 4. Also you have excellent taste with your Cutpurrse. That thing can carry you into the endgame, and I fucking love its alternate final evolution (not spoiling the name just in case XD). I think if you slap a fire sword onto that it will melt through a lot of the enemies on the continent you're on. Also… have you been boosting any familiar stats by feeding them? That can really help.

Okay, so for the experience grinding. The enemy you want right now is called a Toko, and can be found on Ugly Duckling Isle. It's a small island kinda northwest of Hamelin with all 3 of Oliver's early familiars running around on it (Mite, Thumbelemur and Seed Sprite). But occasionally you'll see something else. It can show up on the world map but also be part of any encounter you start on that island. I think a dead giveaway that it'll be in combat is if the unit runs from you on the world map, but that doesn't mean it can't still show up if the unit chases you. Personally I tend to try to get them to appear visibly before combat but that involves a lot of flying around because the loading zone for the enemies is a ways from the island. But it's a lot of luck since they're rare as I said. Toko's evolution is much more consistently findable (and gives way more exp) but you're not strong enough to farm those yet (they're on the path up to Perdida, which you probably haven't found yet). Anyway important thing to note is these fuckers run away quickly. From battle and from you on the map (the unit will vanish into thin air after a few seconds of running). So you have to corner them quickly and also kill them quickly.

Final option. There is a familiar that just wrecks. The thing is a beast. It deals brutal damage and eats hits for days, once you level it up a bit. It has terrible speed (movement AND attack) but don't let that fool you, especially once you put some decent tricks on it. I'm putting this last because it's almost to the point where it ends up trivializing most of the game (arguably even including the strongest post-game superboss). And if you get multiple of these and give them to your whole party, you can just laugh your way to the end. Not gonna lie though I enjoy using it, or at least having it in my party in case I hit unexpected trouble. But anyway, the details. This guy is also kind of rare and has a shit tame rate. But you can find it on top of the cliffsides around Al Mamoon. My favorite spot it up near where the Temple of Trials is (to the north, where you met Solomon). Like with Tokos I just fly far enough away to reload the enemies and land somewhere with enemy units nearby (but not too close, or they won't spawn when you land). The thing is called Dinoceros and you'll probably know it when you see it. It has a horn.

lr-hr-rh

Yeah Monolith has been good for keeping Swaine alive when I use all-defense, I think my problem there is that I haven't found any other familiars to fill the other spots in his party that I like so it's never particularly useful to have him be the one that doesn't die. I'll probably do a bit more hunting around to try and solve that particular problem, especially if I can grind on these Tokos and don't need to worry as much about the time investment of levelling up new familiars. Glad to hear that the Cutpurrse is a viable long-term option, I essentially caught one because it reminded me of my friend's cat (I also named it after him) so I've got a bit of sentimental attachment there =P. I've been boosting the stats of the familiars I'm pretty sure I'll keep, so at this point that's basically just my Cutpurrse, Drone Bumbler and Swaine's Monolith. The rest I've been unsure of whether the investment is worth it, but I've not really looked into producing foods with alchemy (again my friend wasn't big on me stopping the game for an hour to leaf through the Wizard's Companion >.< ) so maybe it'll turn out I don't need to be as stingey with my good treats as I have been.

Thanks muchly for the info on the Toko and the Dinoceros, the latter especially sounds awesome (and looks like a total badass if he's picture in the Wizard's Companion is anything to go by). I'll probably hold off on taming one for now though; while I've been getting slapped around by strong familiars in the wild the bosses so far have been a good mix of challenging and beatable without multiple retries and I don't want to mess with that balance just yet…
...or maybe I'll just catch one and keep him in reserve. He just looks too cool to not have!

Smiley

Monster hunter stories one of the best pokemon "clones" I played and has a lot of things I wished Sun/Moon had like a player character that isn't perpetually doing the same psychotic smile all the time no matter what happens.

Ekila

I have been playing Final Fantasy IX, and I have been figuring out the card game that they have in there. It was pretty confusing, but I'm starting to understand how it works. It seems I have to remember what the defenses/attack of the card is, though I do wish, that it was shown in the card selection screen or something; to save some time and all that. Oh well! o:

Noqanky

Finally completed Cuphead - doing S-rank on all bosses and P (pacifist) on all run and gun levels.

It's probably one of the hardest things I've done in games this year, and I'm happy to be done. Some of my times were also pretty good, don't think any broke WR but they're still pretty solid. Tried my best to play with speed strats in mind and it really pushed me to get better. Plane levels and the Devil were particularly nasty.

Now for victory sleep!

tatermoog

@Ekila:

I have been playing Final Fantasy IX, and I have been figuring out the card game that they have in there. It was pretty confusing, but I'm starting to understand how it works. It seems I have to remember what the defenses/attack of the card is, though I do wish, that it was shown in the card selection screen or something; to save some time and all that. Oh well! o:

I've played through FFIX probably four times. All four times, I was like, "hey, I should learn the card game this time," played two rounds, realized/remembered it had no positive bearing on the game and wasn't nearly as good as Triple Triad, and quit.

…though now I'm having flashbacks to trying to get all the rules manipulated on Triple Triad. Man, I put too much time and thought into video games in my youth.

RoboBlue

I'm playing Doom and Ittle Dew 2+ on Switch. It's my first time playing a shooter on a console (and first modern shooter), so this should be interesting.

tatermoog

@RoboBlue:

I'm playing Doom and Ittle Dew 2+ on Switch. It's my first time playing a shooter on a console (and first modern shooter), so this should be interesting.

Doom is surprisingly great. It's a good choice for a first entry back into the genre, since it's pretty stripped down to the basics and fun.

Foolio

@Noqanky:

Finally completed Cuphead - doing S-rank on all bosses and P (pacifist) on all run and gun levels.

It's probably one of the hardest things I've done in games this year, and I'm happy to be done. Some of my times were also pretty good, don't think any broke WR but they're still pretty solid. Tried my best to play with speed strats in mind and it really pushed me to get better. Plane levels and the Devil were particularly nasty.

Now for victory sleep!

Dang I missed it. That boss really put you through hell :ninja:

The Franky Tank

@Noqanky:

Finally completed Cuphead - doing S-rank on all bosses and P (pacifist) on all run and gun levels.

It's probably one of the hardest things I've done in games this year, and I'm happy to be done. Some of my times were also pretty good, don't think any broke WR but they're still pretty solid. Tried my best to play with speed strats in mind and it really pushed me to get better. Plane levels and the Devil were particularly nasty.

Now for victory sleep!

What ended up being your death count and total play time in the end? After attempting Hilda Berg and getting no where after an hour, it was definitely not a challenge I was up for, so massive props for completing such a game.

Lately, I've been off and on playing two games. The first one is Zwei: The Illvard Insurrection, a dungeon crawler game where you eat food to level up and play between two characters, a warrior type and a mage type. Pretty fun game with a lot of charm and quirky characters.

I've also been obsessed playing Super Metroid with the Item Randomizer. I tried doing a speed run seed, but the skill requirement to get to the abandoned ship with no speed boost or grapple beam was too much for me. As for the various casual run plays, there was one where I played through and never found the spacejump, so I really learned how to wall jump like a pro in that run. Also had a run where I went to Crocomire without the Varia suit. It's definitely got me to learn where all the items are, and appreciate the skills of speed runners even more.

Noqanky

@The:

What ended up being your death count and total play time in the end? After attempting Hilda Berg and getting no where after an hour, it was definitely not a challenge I was up for, so massive props for completing such a game.

Well, technically the death count for the S-rank run is pretty low, maybe a dozen at most… but that's because the way S-rank works, the run is dead the second you get hit, which is where you just restart. Therefore, what that fountain tells me in regards of deaths fails to really convey how much trouble each boss gave me. The number the fountain gives me would me 95% deaths from my co-op run with foo in regular.

In terms of time, steam tells me I'm at 64 hours with the game. Notably tough bosses were Hilda Berg and Wally Warbles, each taking two hours each; Dr. Kahl's robot taking a stupid 6-7 hours, until I slept it off, then came back the next day and got him with cheese strats pretty quickly; King Dice taking two hours, but then part of what takes long in that is having to redo the mini-bosses; and then the Devil, who took about 4 hours and thirty minutes, after not one but TWO TIMES of getting hit at the same exact frame in which I killed him, which is one of the most gigantic slaps in the face this game can give.

Outside of those bosses everything else felt manageable, though a couple (Cala Maria, Cpt. Brineybeard, Phantom Express, Rumour Honeybottoms) I would not want to have to do again given just how much reliance on RNG they involve. And then there's Werner Werman, who I killed without damage the first time and had to retry for like five to ten more minutes just to get a good roll on the cycles in order to get 3 parries in the beginning.

Nobodyman

Well, I've begun my playthrough of the Phantasy Star series, starting with the very first one.

So, a female protagonist. Quite progressive, but, unfortunately, the gameplay isn't. Most of the first hour or so has just been me grinding just so I can even stand a chance against the common baddies.

Also, while most JRPGs at the time (i.e. FF and DQ) were doing medieval fantasy, this one has a futuristic setting. Pretty cool.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

Oh yes, and of course the FPV dungeons. That's...different.

Ekila

@tatermoog:

I've played through FFIX probably four times. All four times, I was like, "hey, I should learn the card game this time," played two rounds, realized/remembered it had no positive bearing on the game and wasn't nearly as good as Triple Triad, and quit.

…though now I'm having flashbacks to trying to get all the rules manipulated on Triple Triad. Man, I put too much time and thought into video games in my youth.

Ah, I see. I read online, that people did not like this card game as much as Triple Triad. Though, it has been a while since I played Final Fantasy VIII, so I don't remember the rules much. Also, what do you mean by manipulation? O.o

tatermoog

@Ekila:

Ah, I see. I read online, that people did not like this card game as much as Triple Triad. Though, it has been a while since I played Final Fantasy VIII, so I don't remember the rules much. Also, what do you mean by manipulation? O.o

There were certain rules in each region of FFVIII–for example, what would happen in a tie, or if cards were chosen before a match or at random--that could through overly complicated methods be spread to a different region. So, for some of the latter regions with difficult rules, there was a complicated process for getting those rules changed to easier ones that was, uh, maybe just as difficult. Basically the Chocobo Breeding of FFVIII.

But the card game itself was pretty solid.

Robby

@Nobodyman:

Well, I've begun my playthrough of the Phantasy Star series, starting with the very first one.

Good luck. The story is decent but the games haven't aged terribly well in terms of gameplay, design, or graphics. (4 still looks okay, but even it is super dated.)

They're also reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally long games.

Rogues' Gallery

I've got a lot of games to games to catch up on after I return home from Deployment. Far Cry 4 (and 5), The Last of Us Remastered, Arkham Knight, the entire Uncharted series…

RoboBlue

@Nobodyman:

Well, I've begun my playthrough of the Phantasy Star series, starting with the very first one.

So, a female protagonist. Quite progressive, but, unfortunately, the gameplay isn't. Most of the first hour or so has just been me grinding just so I can even stand a chance against the common baddies.

Also, while most JRPGs at the time (i.e. FF and DQ) were doing medieval fantasy, this one has a futuristic setting. Pretty cool.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

Oh yes, and of course the FPV dungeons. That's...different.

Two tips: make maps of the dungeons (or use maps online) and grind like hell.
You can't possibly make your way through all of the dungeons by memory.

Also, the translations for Phantasy Star 1 and 2 are pretty bad, so you should use the fan re-translations.

Nobodyman

@Robby:

They're also reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally long games.

@RoboBlue:

Two tips: make maps of the dungeons (or use maps online) and grind like hell.
You can't possibly make your way through all of the dungeons by memory.

Also, the translations for Phantasy Star 1 and 2 are pretty bad, so you should use the fan re-translations.

Thanks. Good to know. Unfortunately though, I did buy Phantasy Star I & II off the Wii shop, so it would seem kind of a waste to just use fan-translated versions now.

Ekila

@tatermoog:

There were certain rules in each region of FFVIII–for example, what would happen in a tie, or if cards were chosen before a match or at random--that could through overly complicated methods be spread to a different region. So, for some of the latter regions with difficult rules, there was a complicated process for getting those rules changed to easier ones that was, uh, maybe just as difficult. Basically the Chocobo Breeding of FFVIII.

But the card game itself was pretty solid.

Ah, I see. I remember that now! I think I tried to get ones with little rules, so I could get all the cards. (I never beat the game, I should get it again in the future!)

The talk about Phantasy Star, I never played the main RPGs, only the online ones. (Hopefully, one day I play the originals!) Where do the online games fit in terms of story? Or they are a complete different entity?

DarthAsthma

I wish I was playing Ys8 which already arrived over here but didn't have a chance yet to crack it open.

tatermoog

@DarthAsthma:

I wish I was playing Ys8 which already arrived over here but didn't have a chance yet to crack it open.

If you enjoy it half as much as I did, it will still be worth the wait.

Sakonosolo

Getting annoyed at almost every MGO2 TSNE room saying no rushing, which basically means no playing the objective. At least my aim has gotten a little better but I still can almost never hit anything. I wasn't that good before it was shut down but still a lot better than I am now.

CCC

Did every last thing in Mario Odyssey except 100 jumpropes, currently working on S-ranks in Cuphead, and Horizon Zero Dawn and Persona 5 are sitting on the to-do pile…

RazgrizX

I've recently S-ranked all bosses in Cuphead too. I don't want to see Cala Maria's face ever again

DarthAsthma

@tatermoog:

If you enjoy it half as much as I did, it will still be worth the wait.

Super looking forward to it. This year has been a lot of falcom game goodness for me(and general goodness). Just gotta have to find the time.
Also currently looking into maybe getting a switch for christmas which has like 3 heavy hitters waiting + other stuff like mario and rabbits crazy year for games.

tatermoog

@CCC:

Did every last thing in Mario Odyssey except 100 jumpropes, currently working on S-ranks in Cuphead, and Horizon Zero Dawn and Persona 5 are sitting on the to-do pile…

The jump-rope thing is so bizarre to me. Got 120 second try, then quit doing it because I got bored.

Not bragging, it's just on every other "difficult video game task," I'm the one exasperated and trying to figure out how in hell anyone does it.

…crap, this was the high point of my existence, probably.

Purple Hermit

They say that you eventually learn the reason you were brought into the world.

Guess this was yours

Panda Bear

Jump Rope???

RoboBlue

@tatermoog:

The jump-rope thing is so bizarre to me. Got 120 second try, then quit doing it because I got bored.

Not bragging, it's just on every other "difficult video game task," I'm the one exasperated and trying to figure out how in hell anyone does it.

…crap, this was the high point of my existence, probably.

The real hardest moon is probably this:

Make sure you use the long jump and not the roll.

tatermoog

@Purple:

They say that you eventually learn the reason you were brought into the world.

Guess this was yours

Just a nice quiet day of staring into the void.

thegab

Anyone recommend the new assassins creed? It's on sale and I'm considering it. I played up until AC3, and they're all too similar to make me want to play another. However, I heard this one plays entirely different, and has a lot of new rpg qualities.

So is it diffrrent/ better than every other AC game?

K. Kira XXIII

What is the discount offer? My rule of thumb is 75% or above. Unless I really want the game, then maybe 66%.

About AC, I stopped at 4. Which was way better than 3. Unfortunately, the ones that followed had such bad reputations, that I wouldn't invest on the next installments unless it was on sale.

Foolio

@tatermoog:

The jump-rope thing is so bizarre to me. Got 120 second try, then quit doing it because I got bored.

Same, except I stopped at 200 out of boredom.

@RoboBlue:

The real hardest moon is probably this:

youtube;qXkluxQ6rP4]

Make sure you use the long jump and not the roll.

Uhh not even close? It's not even the hardest moon on that level. In fact it's not even the second-hardest. Both the poison piranha plant one and the scooter-less P-switch one took a lot longer.

RoboBlue

@Foolio:

Same, except I stopped at 200 out of boredom.

Uhh not even close? It's not even the hardest moon on that level. In fact it's not even the second-hardest. Both the poison piranha plant one and the scooter-less P-switch one took a lot longer.

I beat both of those much faster than Breakdown Road Final Challenge.

Sakonosolo

I was watching Vinesauce stream it and one of his friends got like 1800 points on the jump rope minigame. His reaction was pretty funny.

Ekila

@Panda:

Jump Rope???

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/57/Ffix_n_optional_Jump-Rope-1000.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160507142200

That mini-game is really hard. It probably takes a lot of skill to get to 1000 >.<

thegab

@K.:

What is the discount offer? My rule of thumb is 75% or above. Unless I really want the game, then maybe 66%.

About AC, I stopped at 4. Which was way better than 3. Unfortunately, the ones that followed had such bad reputations, that I wouldn't invest on the next installments unless it was on sale.

It was on the xbox marketplace for $41.99. I'm not sure what the original price was, and there are different versions of it that were also discounted.

K. Kira XXIII

That would be around 25-33% sale, if anyone that has played the game can give input if it is worthwhile. In my book I would just wait until it is like 20-30$. I am not that bothered of not playing games during their launch year.

Bond en Avant

@RoboBlue:

I beat both of those much faster than Breakdown Road Final Challenge.

Looks like it depends on the person then. I'm used to long jumping everywhere so Breakdown Road was easy for me, but I took way too many tries on Invisible Road because I'm so haphazard with my mobility.

Don Quichotte De Flamingo

I also consider Jump rope one of the hardest moons and iam glad i failed exactly at 100 to never having to attempt it again

Noqanky

I'm really curious about what makes jumprope so difficult to some people while to me and others it's trivially easy. Rhythm games? Mario Party habits?

Bond en Avant

@Noqanky:

I'm really curious about what makes jumprope so difficult to some people while to me and others it's trivially easy. Rhythm games? Mario Party habits?

The rhythm aspect probably. Getting into the groove requires a sort of concentration that's not easy to achieve, and Mario's second jump tends to throw off people's timing.
I just barely passed 100 using the scooter trick.

maxterdexter

@Foolio:

Same, except I stopped at 200 out of boredom.

Uhh not even close? It's not even the hardest moon on that level. In fact it's not even the second-hardest. Both the poison piranha plant one and the scooter-less P-switch one took a lot longer.

To each their own, I got the scotter one at the 10th try or so, and the poison piranha like at 6 or 7.

The second capless bullet bill one still sits with the 100jump rope as testaments to my failure.

I went in with 700 coins, I went out with 0. Well that included the tries for the top side, but still.

Foolio

@maxterdexter:

To each their own, I got the scotter one at the 10th try or so, and the poison piranha like at 6 or 7.

Roughly the same for me (and for context I played all of these stages BEFORE their easier counterparts). But once I noticed the lower Banzai Bill, that second moon only took like… 3 attempts. The first I had a bad angle on the long jumps, the second I missed an input, the third succeeded.

But the annoyance of the other two is multiplied due to how long they take. The Banzai Bill one is super short and only requires a few seconds of precision at the end. The poison one requires incredibly precise movement constantly and dealing with terrible hitbox programming, and is generally very slow going even once you get the hang of how to do it (plus waiting for that rotating platform). The scooter-less one has an easy filler section at the start, with the middle part requiring the most precision. I only failed the last segment once or twice (trying to get the second moon) but the annoyance of doing all that over from the start is greatest. Also despite only taking maybe 10 tries, most attempts took a long time due to me messing something up and deciding to go back, waiting for the switch to reset (ugh).

maxterdexter

Oh, I'd rather die.

And start over. Training.

And I was thinking that I was doing the bullet bill wrong, when I was doing topside I almost always got to the other side, but in under side its already hard to get to the end safely, so my attempts are gimped.

I get the difficulty of the scooterless,the second section was the hardest, but can't get why the piranha was hard.