aniMay Games Chat Thread - get you the hot shelves of turtle to die

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > aniMay Games Chat Thread - get you the hot shelves of turtle to die

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Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

My current target for games in May are to get through two titles in my backlog (MGSV and Transistor) and start Zelda (Switch coming this week) and Trails in the Sky 3rd. I was going to also play Trine 2 but I bounced off of it pretty hard after a few hours.

# ¿ May 1, 2017 16:15

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 08:15

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Bogart posted:

Can somebody explain the whole Fate/Stay Night series. As a fan of Persona and fake history, would I like it? All I know about it is some vague memory of the PM (pre-meme) era 4chan Unlimited Blade Works joke.

The premise is that there is a battle royale that occurs between modern day wizards who wield super powerful familiars taken out of history and myth. Hercules fighting Robin Hood fighting Lancelot fighting Alexander the Great, etc. It's a franchise that looks more complicated than it actually is because there are so many spinoffs and multiple timelines, but the original core of it (stay night, Zero, hollow ataraxia) make for a fairly engrossing/compelling narrative in my view depending upon your tolerances for overly wordy exposition and general action/fantasy anime nonsense. The original Visual Novel stay night especially I feel has a pretty strong set of character arcs for its principle cast and a handful of fairly clever twists and some memorable action set pieces. It has plenty of warts and a kind of mediocre first arc/route, but those good points generally were enough to get it past that. Obviously, your mileage may vary on that.

Liking persona doesn't really matter at all IMO, other than having a tolerance for general anime shenanigans. The only vague similarity I'd give between the two is that the PSP spinoff Fate/Extra has a bit of a Persona calendar/S. Link system. TBQH I can't really speak for the rest it all that much because the series kind of lost me once it dived into its billion spinoffs (well, mostly the f2p mobile game Fate/Grand Order).

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 17:51 on May 2, 2017

# ¿ May 2, 2017 17:48

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Bogart posted:

So I'd want to start with the new F/sn if I wanted to check it out? I do like magical minutiae and modern wizard bullshit with an Abrahamic backing. Is it on Steam?

Basically. It's the 2012 Realta Nua version you want, which has three separate installs for each route. Unfortunately it's not available officially in English, relying instead upon a fan translation patch. But given how VNs on Steam have gone recently I would not be surprised if someday it does wind up there.

# ¿ May 2, 2017 18:44

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Doctor Spaceman posted:

I'm really struggling to think of a game that was too short. Even when the ending is a bit abrupt it's more an issue with pacing than lack of time.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge

Okami was not a short game but it ends way too suddenly.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 13:19

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Monkey Fracas posted:

Urrrgghhh if Persona 4 wasn't so good I would have uninstalled it the second time some random enemy pulled some bullshit out of its rear end and murdered the protag in one round and erased like an hour of progress

Oh yeah it's not a full solution, but P4G did implement some changes to this. On Normal and I think Hard you restart a floor when you get a game over, Easy lets you restart whatever fight you died in, and I think only Very Hard forces you to reload your last save.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 13:31

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Help Im Alive posted:

Which game is your biggest goongret

Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Telltale's The Walking Dead Season 1

E: The Criterion thread in movies is full of poo poo on a lot of films that they swear are worth blind buying but inevitably wind up boring and pretentious

# ¿ May 4, 2017 15:03

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

corn in the bible posted:

go back to your comic book movies then lmao

I hate those too!! In fact I started collecting Criterions kind of specifically to be able to see some movie, any kind of movie, that was not the garbage coming out in theaters nowadays.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 15:10

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Monkey Fracas posted:

Ah, that sounds like a nice little QOL improvement. As is I guess I'll just exit and save a every couple of floors or something. Kinda like swapping out characters anyways to keep everyone around the same level and spread the SP usage load around a little and keep the party going for longer before everyone's just tapped out for the day. Transferring that Reinvigorate skill that recovers SP every round to a Persona worth a drat helps out a little; seems like the Protagonist is always forced to do the most in terms of SP usage.

You don't get "tired" in this game like in Persona 3 but it kind of doesn't matter since you'll eventually run out of SP anyways unless you're fighting things you can just stomp into the ground with physical attacks and if you're strong enough to do that there's usually not much point in really doing it.

I do kinda wish the dungeoneering was a little more broken-up; seems like if you really wanna be ~efficient~ you have to get as far as you can and just totally exhaust all your SP before you peace out which can take a while.

I've started listening to podcasts while doing dungeonstuff; I couldn't take it anymore

I don't know how far you are yet but leveling up Hermit makes it such that you can stay in a dungeon perpetually. Even at level 1 (required prior to the bathouse I believe) you can do so, it's just rather expensive and might be a net negative if you're not making it up to close to the boss.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 15:20

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

It's not even the enormous technical jank of TWD S1 that I hate so much, as terrible as that was. I just don't loving like most zombie stories or at least ones that play them straight. I should've known from the very beginning that it was not going to be a game I was going to enjoy but I still got talked into it.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 15:23

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Monkey Fracas posted:

Ah yeah it's at level 4 or something now and still seems like a net negative.... I like the little sidequests associated with it though so I'm going through it.

You can absolutely stay in the dungeon at that level, provided you're not avoiding most/all enemies. I'd still stock up on TaP Soda when given the chance because that'll be cheaper per SP than the fox up until like level 9, but you should be fine to just stay in there forever.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 16:12

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

My favorite will always be Rita w/ Overdrive in Tales of Vesperia. "Blahblahblah, TIDAL WAVE!"

# ¿ May 4, 2017 16:14

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Isn't that crazy Guilty Gear game not cel shaded, but rather 3D models?

# ¿ May 4, 2017 16:27

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I feel like the punishment for dying in Nier:A is too great for me to want to play on Hard.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 16:40

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Ometeotl posted:

Ghost Trick

I was certain that there were examples that I just couldn't think of, and was waiting for someone else to chime in so I could go "Oh yeah, that game totally did that right!". So I'm doing that now, because you are totally correct.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 19:07

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Jay Rust posted:

These certainly are examples of amnesia in games

Yeah. Something like Ghost Trick actually uses and weaves the amnesia aspect of the MC into the narrative that is very clever and the story benefits by its inclusion. FF6 just happens to have a character with amnesia that could have been pretty easily handwaved away or otherwise changed and not needed it.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 19:20

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Looper posted:

Friendly reminder that Godzilla is a criterion collection movie, and also really good

Oh I have like 90 Criterions I love, of which Godzilla is one. But some, like the Before Trilogy or the Dekalog, are absolutely cases of "I can kind of see why this is culturally/artistically deemed significant, but I am bored to tears watching this and know I'll never ever rewatch it."

# ¿ May 4, 2017 19:44

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

The Dekalog is fuckin' amazing

I kind of liked the last chapter because it's a bit of a black comedy, but that's about it.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 19:56

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I'm like, extraordinarily impressed with how good the Switch looks (well, Mario Kart at least) in handheld mode. It definitely looks great on my TV but it just looks mesmerizing in handheld somehow.

# ¿ May 6, 2017 21:08

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Neurophage posted:

Is system shock 2 worth playing if I was unimpressed by Bioshock?

Might depend on what you didn't like about Bioshock, the games are only similar in the sense that Bioshock is an infinitely easier, stripped down, somewhat superficial take on the systems and conventions SS2 established. On the other hand SS2 has a lot of technical jank and weird intricacies that are bound to frustrate modern players; by contrast Bioshock is both a lot easier and more polished. Personally I think it's worth it because when it comes to atmosphere and story for a FPS (if you can even really call SS2 a FPS), SS2 is just about second to none. I strongly recommend hunting down some of the mods to make it play a little better though.

The one big reveal about halfway through SS2 is one of the best gaming moments of all time IMO.

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 23:45 on May 7, 2017

# ¿ May 7, 2017 23:43

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Nier:A was a weird game for me where I don't think the individual moments or spoilers really mattered to me all that much, it's never going to be a "well if you wait until X hours in, this or that will happen and you'll start liking it more" or "well knowing this ahead of time from the first game means I'm spoiled on this." The actual background and nitty gritty of how/what/when/where/why of that world is kind of inconsequential to the character moments and general existential introspection that is the real meat of the narrative. There are also a lot of subtle bits of characterization and contrast when you start seeing other character's perspectives on a variety of events/battles that will make you look back on so many things with a retrospective sense that really enhances the experience. It's a real special game for its story but not for reasons that I'm used to (or able to explain all that well) in other story-heavy games.

As for the combat, yeah it's not particularly hard or special, but at least it's inoffensive and overall doesn't distract from the story in a way that you so often have to make excuses for in other story-heavy games.

# ¿ May 8, 2017 14:03

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Quest For Glory II posted:

skies of arcadia next please

You can kind of already do this with Legends on Dolphin.

My answer remains Tales of Vesperia, so I can feel better about selling my 360.

# ¿ May 10, 2017 17:12

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Rich Evans likes Vanquish a lot, so even though I disagree often with his video game opinions I kind of want to check it out.

# ¿ May 10, 2017 22:47

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

raditts posted:

Which one was the bad one

All of them / whatever one's your favorite of course.

# ¿ May 11, 2017 14:13

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I don't want to be that heh look at me hot take guy, but man I have not cared about FF since X which I found profoundly disappointing given the hype at the time. Cool that other people were able to have fun with that franchise afterwards though.

# ¿ May 11, 2017 14:19

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Harrow posted:

I don't really have much of an opinion on FFX's story, setting, and cast, but I love its battle system. I'm a sucker for a turn-based system where a major mechanic manipulating who gets turns when. I also love Grandia's combat system for being the same thing but with modified ATB.

You should play the Trails series, if you aren't already (if you're a Falcom thread regular I apologize for forgetting).

# ¿ May 11, 2017 14:40

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I don't think it's impossible to put together a Final Fantasy in 2017 that I wouldn't like either, as Bravely Default is a classic FF in all but name but with a ton of QOL improvements, a superlative job/battle system, and rocking music and it's one of my favorite JRPGs of the past generation.

# ¿ May 11, 2017 14:45

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Also Re: Trails battle systems, you can cut in line to manipulate the turn order via S-Breaks, either to deliver a heavy hit to enemies, ensure your characters get certain bonuses on later turns, or to stop an enemy from getting a turn during certain moments. During harder boss fights this becomes paramount and very necessary to master. It's fun!

# ¿ May 11, 2017 14:57

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

a kitten posted:

What the heck even is Prey? I've never played System Shock...or Bioshock for that matter.

Is there character customization?

What would I have to say to convince you to play System Shock 2

I like that game a whole heck of a lot!

# ¿ May 11, 2017 20:44

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Xenosaga III was OK enough to wash some of the bad taste of the second game away.

Post-Trails it's kind of a sad looking back at previous attempts at episodic JRPG series like .hack and Xenosaga. No one ever seemed to get it right.

# ¿ May 15, 2017 17:50

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I feel like one's Chrono Cross experience is enhanced if you just focus on a handful of characters who are cool/important and don't worry about recruiting the rest. It's one of my favorite PSX JRPGs and even I've never bothered to 100% it. For me that was Glenn, Fargo, Karsh, Norris, and of course Kid.

# ¿ May 16, 2017 17:25

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

I haven't really watched much TV in the past couple years but that show seems good

BCS is so loving great. It's hard to imagine anything reaching the highs of Breaking Bad's last couple of seasons, but on the whole I think I prefer BCS.

# ¿ May 17, 2017 12:52

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Olive Garden tonight! posted:

e:

I don't know what this is is all about but that thumbnail is from Wolf Children, a really loving great Mamoru Hosoda movie.

# ¿ May 17, 2017 21:12

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Cowcaster posted:

speaking of nier i played some more of it the other day while in a drunken stupor and i did something in a forest castle of some kind i think and beat up another sexy panty robot who had some kind of spear i think? how far am i through the game, understanding that you need to replay the thing 5 times to see all the content

Calling it replays is pretty disingenuous. Routes A and B are two sides of the same coin and can be argued to be a replay, but C/D/E are basically just one route that happen after A/B where you replay the final boss fight and make a different choice to see the other ending.

# ¿ May 18, 2017 16:49

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I actually keep a little spreadsheet with my backlog and average playtime (from howlongtobeat) explicitly so that I can just go through something shorter every now and then, especially after a long JRPG. The recent ones were Trine 2 (which I dropped, anyway) and Transistor (which I found kind of disappointing but did finish).

# ¿ May 22, 2017 16:38

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I caught up with One Piece in like 2003 and just never looked back, back when there was only like 300 chapters or so. I like it a fair amount even to this day and I'm determined to see it through, but I can completely understand not wanting to bother when you have that much sitting in front of you. Even knowing what I do about the way that series goes I'm not sure I'd be willing to start it fresh myself.

# ¿ May 23, 2017 14:35

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

The fan translations got so awful that I wound up subscribing to the Viz SJ service, at least initially, solely to have better OP translations. They take longer to come out but I don't read any of the OP threads so I'm not in any rush.

Viz SJ eventually led me to My Hero Academia and Promised Neverland so I'd call it a net positive in the end anyway.

# ¿ May 23, 2017 14:45

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Jay Rust posted:

I might be allergic to games that have "Origins" in the title

Ys Origin is really good!!

# ¿ May 23, 2017 23:35

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

The Colonel posted:

it's a thing about modern persona that ticks me off especially when you actually look at persona 2 and see how fuckin chill it is with people being gay, but also persona 4 has a character who is the butt of ugly fat jokes while persona 2 has a character who's entire thing is about how her weight doesn't matter to the people who love her for being a genuinely beautiful, sweet person, and it's not something she needs to change in fear of people rejecting her so i guess tripping up on messages about acceptance and love that one of the earlier, darker games in the series nailed way better is just a trend with the people heading modern persona

persona 2 is loving awful to play without cheats to speed through the gameplay these days, but if you're willing to burn through it on an emulator with infinite hp cheats on and fast forwarding through all the actual gameplay, or ok with just looking at an lp, i actually really, really recommend giving it a look because it's maybe one of the best written jrpgs i've ever played and has consistently funny, upbeat and interesting character writing, great music, a really dark tone that's lifted up in cool ways by a bright and energetic cast that by the end have worked through all of their big personal issues and are just ready to kick some rear end, and you fight nazi super soldiers

The "trick" to Persona 2's gameplay is not needing infinite HP or whatever, it's: 1). try to always end turns with fusion spells and 2). form contracts with demons so that you can go back and forth between fighting enemies (for EXP) and negotiating with them (for Free Tarots). By doing so your personas will be constantly improving or evolving and you can hang out in dungeons forever because your SP regenerates as you run around. I really think the gripes with its gameplay are way overblown, it's a little slow in some ways and yeah it's back in the wonderful days of random battles but it's otherwise a perfectly fine 90s JRPG battle system.

Persona 2 remains probably the best written JRPG I've seen, to say nothing of its standing against the rest of Atlus' catalogue.

# ¿ May 25, 2017 12:53

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

You don't have to replay anything, unless you deleted or saved over your old save or something. Though it depends on what "true" ending you mean...

1). Answering all the questions correctly in December; there's a logic to what you should say but I will fully admit it's a bit obtuse. But if you fail you'll go to credits with a clearly bad ending so it should be kind of obvious you were missing something.

2). Or going back to Junes in March even though the game makes it sound like you're all done. Easy to miss but also super simple, once you head back you're on that path for good.

# ¿ May 25, 2017 19:33

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 08:15

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Monkey Fracas posted:

Yeah I'm not to that point- I thought you had to like have all the S.Links or whatever maxed though? Must be thinking of something else

In Golden (which you aren't playing IIRC), you get a bonus dungeon and special epilogue if you max out Marie. You otherwise still have access to the main story dungeons to finish out the story in that case.

# ¿ May 25, 2017 20:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > aniMay Games Chat Thread - get you the hot shelves of turtle to die

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