Return of the Revenge of the Son of Saying Hi to Josiah!

[Josiah]

Hi! How far did you guys play in XIII? XII's battles became really boring for me fairly early on because, once I had my gambits set up right, I never needed to participate in the battles at all. Even against the optional bosses, the most I had to do was switch leaders if my other party members were a little slow to revive the current guy. I was also rather saddened to discover that, in the end, a really simplistic gambit setup involving nothing but attacking, reviving, and recharging MP generally worked better than my fancy buffing and strategy focused set. Because of that, I came into XIII extremely apprehensive about the battle system and determined to avoid auto-battle. XIII's battles start out fairly simple, but after a few hours, it get really good. Mashing X doesn't work. If you want to do well in battles, you really have to be on top of things during battle, monitoring the situation and quickly jumping back and forth between different paradigms to defend and heal, stagger, buff and debuff, and deal damage in order to do well. I mean, maybe you can half-ass it and mash X for non-boss battles if you don't care about rankings. But I soon became so involved acting as a strategist and commander, that I didn't mind only controlling one member directly, or even choosing auto-battle for said member most of the time. XIII's battles also provided a really good challenge. In a lot of the new Final Fantasy games, especially VI, X, and XII I could easily play through the entire story without ever getting a game over (VII, VIII, and IX weren't all that challenging either, but they had their moments). The only tough fights were if I accidentally ended up in an area too high for my level (XII) or went against some optional bosses (X). XIII actually kept me on my toes during most of the game and often required me to rethinking my strategy and try again, even during random battles (some due to difficulty, some to maximize my ranking for better drops).

On a side note, the License Board, while providing a lot of freedom in character development, also left all the character feeling rather identical to me, in terms of their use in battle. Really, I think the Sphere Grid is the best character development system in the main FF series (followed by the job system).

[shauni]

Apparently I had just gotten to the point before you reach the escape from Cocoon but by that point I was so board I didn't want to play it any more and moved onto another game, which I can't recall now.

[Silver]

I just know we'd reached almost ten hours and it hadn't gotten any better so we dropped it. Don't remember where that was in the story.

And yeah, Sphere Grid > Jobs/Classes > License System, buuut... License System >>>>> Crystarium. The point is that License allowed a ton of character customization, even if it wasn't quite as functional as the others, and the Crystarium... didn't. At all.

Anyways, went to NY to see the Wind Rises yesterday. And it was... the Wind Rises. That's all I have to say about that.

[Josiah]

Hi! You guys didn't play nearly long enough. Not only does the story keeping getting better as the characters are further developed (they're all fairly deep with a good bit of character development), but the Cystarium opens up a bit (it's still not amazing, but once your characters have access to all six roles, you've got a bit more freedom in how they develop), battles get really intense, and you even get the chance get away from the linearity a it and explore once you reach Pulse. Personally, I liked the first part just fine but still, the second half is where it really hits it stride.

But anyway... So far, I'm having fun with Lightning Returns. No real opinion on the story yet (other than that it hasn't been especially good or bad yet), but the battle system and schemata are fun. Too bad work is keeping me so busy (and being so generally stressful), I really haven't been able to play all that much yet.

[shauni]

I dunno Josiah, if you are really not enjoying a game its hard to push through that when it is your precious spare time. I don't know about you guys but I don't get as long as I'd like on a game unless I actually book time of work to play it. last time I did was X and Y and it was worth it.

Lets change the subject. Any games you picked up in the bargain bin on a whim and they have turned out to be Awesome?

I don't normally judge a game by its cover, but I can't stand musley hulking male protagonists like in Gears of War, so when I saw the trailers for Mass Effect and the game cover and the guns I was like "no thanks". It was a part of a buy 3 for 2 offer in my local game shop around the time Mass Effect 2 was coming it, so I got it as it was VERY cheap. I turned it on and found out I could play as a girl, making me instantly more interested. I don't know about you guys, but spending years having to play as a guy has made it when I can play my own gender I do. Turned the game on, starting playing and it was basically in the format of my fav game from the Xbox Star Wars Night of the Old republic. Loved the game, got ME2 right away, loved ME3.

my other bargain bin game was final Fantasy 8, I got it for £5 just as the FF9 went platinum. Loved that as well.

[Josiah]

Hi! Like I said, I was enjoying it myself. There are some games I had to force myself through long boring sections, but XIII wasn't one. Anyway though, changing topics...

Honestly, when it comes to video games these days, I pretty much always know what I'm getting. Not to say I don't occasionally get games because they're on sale or had a price drop. But, due to my work, I try to keep fairly close tabs on the industry as a whole so I'm pretty much at least somewhat familiar with any given game before I buy it. The closest thing I've had to a surprise in a while was Puppeteer last year, which kind of game out of nowhere and caught my eye with its art style. But even then I read some reviews before I decided to buy it. Glad I did too, it was amazing. But yeah, I don't really make uninformed purchases when it comes to games.

[shauni]

I have Puppeteer but I've not had a chance the play it properly yet. Man I have so many games I haven't even turned on yet...no wonder I'm always poor LOL

[Josiah]

Hi! Yeah... My backlog is kinda ridiculous. I think I'd need a good year or two of solid gaming to get through it. Guess that's something to put on my "things to do when I win the lottery list". Speaking of which, buying a ticket might actually help my odds a bit in that regard...

[PoisonWing14]

Hey,

Due to me barely buying any games for quite a while, I don't even have a backlog of games. It's a bit weird, as most of the time before homeroom, my friends are playing on their 3DS's and I'm just watching them.
I think I should get a 3DS and a couple of games before I school ends, just so I have something to do other than crawl about on the internet all day. I have enough money stored up, so I might as well use it for something.

Also, speaking of games (or rather a lack thereof), I have barely used my Steam account for anything. I have it, but no games as I, once again, have just not been buying anything.

I suppose not buying up games like mad is fine and all, but not having any games is just boring.

Well, enough of that. Back to homework and stuff.

Stay radical people!

[Doodleshark]

'Lo peeps. After spending what probably adds up to at least a few hundred dollars on Steam "sales" (put in quotations because the purpose of sales is to allegedly save you money) over the past three years, I can say that my backlog has reached truly staggering proportions. And I have made little to no progress on it in that time due to my heavy indulgence in the technically never-ending multiplayer games (Call of Duty, Battlefield, World of Tanks, etc.) that soak up free time like some sort of sponge made out of dark matter.

[Silver]

I haven't touched steam in a while because I'm afraid that once I do I'll be reminded that I bought Terraria and as soon as I open that I'll be stuck there for several weeks and that's very dangerous. I have a very large backlog and I'm trying to finish up my Pokemon team.

Meanwhile, I've put over 400 hours into Animal Crossing over the last eight months. I'm still playing this game regularly (I didn't touch it while in Florida, but aside from that I haven't missed a day) after eight months. Send help.

[PoisonWing14]

Hey,

Gosh, I'm actually worried that once I get the moral to buy games, I'll just become a freakin' mushroom, just playing games all day and not wanting to do any work...ever. Not too good if I'll be in college next year...

I mean, I'll be a happy mushroom, but a mushroom nonetheless.

Also, I understand Silver. I put so much time into Animal Crossing for the Gamecube. I pulled every single weed. I went to the early morning exercises that were held in front of the town well or whatever it was during the summer. And I too was able to let go.
Though, if it's fun, why give it up? It at least gives you something to do rather than waste away online...like I do...heh heh...

I need a hobby. Maybe I'll take up sewing or something.

[shauni]

I've put over 400 hours into Animal Crossing

man I've not played mine much since I got Pokemon X and Y...I'm frightened to see the state of my town LOL, I clocked up a few hours on that game myself.

I feel a bit anti social gaming on Xbox and PS3 now a days, so my 3DS does see more use than any of my other consoles. I don't think i'll be going next gen till I work through all the games i'm yet to play.

Think I'll have another clear out and try to find some of my games new homes. I could use the money, I broke a draw last week and my other set of draws is stuck.

I never seem to spend money on things I really.....need LOL

[PoisonWing14]

Hey!

Well, I'm quite happy right now. It's college related. I got accepted somewhere pretty awesome. I doubt I'll go there, due to it being kind of really out of my budget, but knowing that they're willing to accept me is cool.
So, to get to the point: I got accepted to RIT, a pretty well-known college around my area. As I said, I'm probably not going to go since it's really expensive and I'd rather not be paying off student loans for the rest of my life, but it's still pretty cool to see that they actually like me and would be okay with me going there.

So, yeah. That's all I really wanted to say. And I've put my two cents in about games. It's also really cold here and I was tired of trying to keep a blanket on my shoulders while I sat at the computer. So I improvised. I made a blanket into a cloak. It's quite warm and, due to it's color and how it sits on my shoulders, it looks like the capes/cloaks that the hobbits wore. Win-win.

Stay radical (and warm).

[Josiah]

Meanwhile, I've put over 400 hours into Animal Crossing over the last eight months. I'm still playing this game regularly (I didn't touch it while in Florida, but aside from that I haven't missed a day) after eight months. Send help.

Hi! There's a reason I tend to avoid endless games like that. Then again, I got bored of the ones I have played before spending any more time on them than I would some of the regular games I play. I think the games I've spent the most time on are Pokémon Red and Guild Wars (the one MMO I got serious about), both of which hit several hundred hours if I remember right. Nothing else has cracked 200 so far. Unless you count Cookie Clicker, I guess. But I don't really play that so much as let it play itself.