The "Currently Playing..." Topic

2010-04-03 10:53:50 am

Dood Trigger™

Finished Momohime's Total Pandemonium on my first try. Didn't even use healing items. It's not that bad with the right gear.

This challenge is so long that I leveled up FOUR TIMES while doing it. Now I'm at Level 92, all that's left for me to do in the game is run around leveling up and then get the third ending for each character.

arkarian

2010-04-03 01:26:42 pm

red chamber dream

heh tbob i may be the only one on the forum who understood your post. but yep, dendroids fucking own. i don't get a chance to use them often since they're so slow but i'm very happy when i need them. one of the big reasons i love rampart.

Da Dood

2010-04-03 02:58:42 pm

Dood Trigger™

Aaand, now I'm done with the game. 100%.

Final numbers:

Momohime
Level 99
Life Flame: 9328
Time: 21h 1min
Money: 21 ryo, 2168 mon

Kisuke
Level 99
Life Flame: 9464
Time: 15h 41min
Money: 17 ryo, 5489 mon

General (Shura difficulty)
108 Blades
All six endings
All Enemy Lairs completed
Total time: 36h 43min

I think I have all the Accessories. Everything else on the inventory is maxed out, including x9 for all recovery and support items.

I also fought the hidden octopus boss, which is sweet. You have 60 seconds to cut all its tentacles off, then when you take the boat ride again a mermaid shows up and gives you an item that lets you teleport to a save point an unlimited number of times. Of course, this is totally useless now...

In short: Style over substance, but with some patience this game can be a treat.

Now for a break, then I'll tackle the first wave of Mega Man 10 DLC this Monday!

tomatobob

2010-04-03 08:48:01 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from arkarian:

heh tbob i may be the only one on the forum who understood your post.

Yeah, that's fine though, the point was mostly to preserve the glory of Dendroids for the ages.

Also I enjoy making posts here that no one really understands because half the time I don't know what anyone is talking about either! :D

Super KB

2010-04-04 08:59:13 am

ϟ

playing Mega Man 2

its 2010.... where's Mega Man?

ryu

2010-04-04 10:23:15 am

I'm about 3 hours into Fragile Dreams so far. The game is often being .. rather slow, that's pretty annoying.

As for Estpolis, doom island was as epic as it's supposed to be, but for different reasons than in the original. : / I'm on my second playthrough now and will do another attempt at getting to about floor 60 in the ancient cave.

Then I'll try chaining larvitars in PKMN Platinum. I want a shiny tyrannitar for SoulSilver.

Quote from tomatobob:

Quote from ryu:

Now going to finish Estpolis. There's some more ancient cave farming ahead, once I'm done with that I'll go fly to doom island.
Don't know if you guys care, since the game will probably not even get a US release, but I can tell you some details about new/changed game mechanics if you want me to.

I care. Do go on.

Battle mechanics are quite simple. Y button is attacking, X button is some kind of special attack that's usually used for platforming, A button is rolling(dodging) and B button is jumping. Also, holding the R button lets you unleash charge attacks using the Y and X buttons. Dodging is quite easy once you have the hang of it, so the game isn't very hard. It's also very easy to become overleveld due to the game being a grindfest.

And here's why: If you kill an enemy it'll stay lying on the ground for another split second. If you're fast enough to get another attack in you can start "overkilling", which is merely dealing damage to a corpse that doesn't fight back. Doing that grants you not only extra exp and gold, but also gives you a change of obtaining a "Derude". Derude drops usually become less per drop in a certain area, so they're not finite but can't be farmed at any place either.
That's because you can turn those in for some neat rewards, such as blue items. But for some reason you'll also often have to progress in the story to unlock these rewards, probably because they're quite easy to get as soon as you gain access to the ancient cave. Yeah, derudes drop in there and can be taken back outside, even if you manage to die in there.
For the first playthrough there are rewards for up to 600 derudes. You'll get around 400 if you normally carry on with the story, so there's quite a bit of ancient cafe grinding to do if you want to get everything. On the second playthrough, there are rewards for up to bout 1200 derudes. Sounds a lot, but you carry your amount from the first playthrough over, so it's not as bad is it seems.

What's completely new to the game is the Magic Stone Grid. It's, duh, a grid for you to place, duh, magic stones on. They'll grand stat boosts as well as unlock passive skills. You ca also get blue stones to carry over into the cave and into the NG+, which is quite neat. You can also combine these stones to make them stronger, but you'll need lots of money and even more lots of stones for that. And stones are usually obtained by killing the right enemies.

Like the ancient cave dragon eggs are still in the game too, but the way toobtain them is rather strange. You get them for beating certain bosses in a short timeframe (about 1minute each), which is way you want to stay overleveled for obtaining everything there is. Obviously this is another reason for grinding the hell out of this game.

The ancient cave is still randomized with 99 floors. Because of the new format it's a lot faster to clear than in the original, but chest contents are not completely randomized, as they only contain items on par to the floor you're currently on. This means you can't find stuff like a Gades Blade on the first few floors of the cave, forcing you to grind deep into the cave for the best rewards.
But you also get gold in there, and a way of spending it by using it to combine your blue stones with white stones you find in there (leveling up blue stones makes them stay blue). On a NG+ the cave will be open immeditaly once you enter the "world map", but the NPC used for combining stones will only be there after a certain point in the story. That sucks. Also, the earlier you go in there the less characters you will have with you.
I managed to die on floor 47 because I forgot to react to my characters being raped to death, as I was used to having lots of characters to swap through until game over. O:

And the cave is only open up to floor 30 on a first playthrough.

I'm about 3 hours into Fragile Dreams so far. The game is often being .. rather slow, that's pretty annoying.

As for Estpolis, doom island was as epic as it's supposed to be, but for different reasons than in the original. : / I'm on my second playthrough now and will do another attempt at getting to about floor 60 in the ancient cave.

Then I'll try chaining larvitars in PKMN Platinum. I want a shiny tyrannitar for SoulSilver.

[quote="tomatobob"][quote="ryu"]Now going to finish Estpolis. There's some more ancient cave farming ahead, once I'm done with that I'll go fly to doom island.
Don't know if you guys care, since the game will probably not even get a US release, but I can tell you some details about new/changed game mechanics if you want me to.[/quote]
I care. Do go on.[/quote]
Battle mechanics are quite simple. Y button is attacking, X button is some kind of special attack that's usually used for platforming, A button is rolling(dodging) and B button is jumping. Also, holding the R button lets you unleash charge attacks using the Y and X buttons. Dodging is quite easy once you have the hang of it, so the game isn't very hard. It's also very easy to become overleveld due to the game being a grindfest.

And here's why: If you kill an enemy it'll stay lying on the ground for another split second. If you're fast enough to get another attack in you can start "overkilling", which is merely dealing damage to a corpse that doesn't fight back. Doing that grants you not only extra exp and gold, but also gives you a change of obtaining a "Derude". Derude drops usually become less per drop in a certain area, so they're not finite but can't be farmed at any place either.
That's because you can turn those in for some neat rewards, such as blue items. But for some reason you'll also often have to progress in the story to unlock these rewards, probably because they're quite easy to get as soon as you gain access to the ancient cave. Yeah, derudes drop in there and can be taken back outside, even if you manage to die in there.
For the first playthrough there are rewards for up to 600 derudes. You'll get around 400 if you normally carry on with the story, so there's quite a bit of ancient cafe grinding to do if you want to get everything. On the second playthrough, there are rewards for up to bout 1200 derudes. Sounds a lot, but you carry your amount from the first playthrough over, so it's not as bad is it seems.

What's completely new to the game is the Magic Stone Grid. It's, duh, a grid for you to place, duh, magic stones on. They'll grand stat boosts as well as unlock passive skills. You ca also get blue stones to carry over into the cave and into the NG+, which is quite neat. You can also combine these stones to make them stronger, but you'll need lots of money and even more lots of stones for that. And stones are usually obtained by killing the right enemies.

Like the ancient cave dragon eggs are still in the game too, but the way toobtain them is rather strange. You get them for beating certain bosses in a short timeframe (about 1minute each), which is way you [i]want[/i] to stay overleveled for obtaining everything there is. Obviously this is another reason for grinding the hell out of this game.

The ancient cave is still randomized with 99 floors. Because of the new format it's a lot faster to clear than in the original, but chest contents are not completely randomized, as they only contain items on par to the floor you're currently on. This means you can't find stuff like a Gades Blade on the first few floors of the cave, forcing you to grind deep into the cave for the best rewards.
But you also get gold in there, and a way of spending it by using it to combine your blue stones with white stones you find in there (leveling up blue stones makes them stay blue). On a NG+ the cave will be open immeditaly once you enter the "world map", but the NPC used for combining stones will only be there after a certain point in the story. That sucks. Also, the earlier you go in there the less characters you will have with you.
I managed to die on floor 47 because I forgot to react to my characters being raped to death, as I was used to having lots of characters to swap through until game over. O:

And the cave is only open up to floor 30 on a first playthrough.

tomatobob

2010-04-04 03:06:53 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Sounds like the Ancient Cave is now mostly designed for New Game+, which is how I looked at it in the original too, still kinda weird to limit you to 30 floors on the first run though.

The Dragon Eggs and Derudes are pretty hilarious, like the game is just asking you to spend as much time as possible doing nothing particularly useful. "You don't have to grind, but you know you want this sweet shit we got for you if you do!"

ryu

2010-04-04 04:01:03 pm

Quote from tomatobob:

The Dragon Eggs and Derudes are pretty hilarious, like the game is just asking you to spend as much time as possible doing nothing particularly useful. "You don't have to grind, but you know you want this sweet shit we got for you if you do!"

Yeah lo. If not for them, the game would be over in no more than 15 hours.

Idkbutlike2

2010-04-04 04:59:37 pm

Playing some Dragon Quest IV, or rather, Dragon Warrior IV. So, I started off thinking this game was gonna be as dull as III, which didn't really entertain me at all, because aside from the first FF, I hate RPGs where you just name and choose the classes of several characters and run off doing busy for no real reason accept the threat of some evil dude. But as it turns out, so far I'm enjoying it! It's the first game in the series to have chapters, and a much more involved plot. Chunsoft was also smart enough to cut down on the level grinding just a tad bit, and now I just grind for the sake of money. So far, I've made it about half way through Chapter 2, and hope to finish it by today or tomorrow.

ryu

Edit history:

ryu: 2010-04-04 07:24:01 pm

2010-04-04 07:19:19 pm

Finished all 100 floors of the cave of the ancients. I'm feeling ~~braindead~~ my brain is a jelly.

Da Dood

2010-04-05 07:53:49 am

Dood Trigger™

In a few hours!

ryu

2010-04-05 08:20:12 am

I thought we're only getting the first special stage today?

ryu

2010-04-05 10:21:36 am

Almost done with my second playthrough of Estpolis. The main game's over pretty quick if you know what to do and where to go.
However the egg dragon is raping me hard now, also because I'm somewhat underleveled. Guess I'll go for another ancient cave dive for some more powerful magic stones.

Da Dood

2010-04-05 10:26:50 am

Dood Trigger™

Bass and Special Stage 1 today, then Special Stages 2 and 3 plus Endless on the 26th.

Da Dood

2010-04-05 05:17:13 pm

Dood Trigger™

Sooo, I got the first DLC wave for Mega Man 10.

Impressions per feature:

Bass (200 Wii Points)

In many situations during a Bass run you don't need help from a weapon, thanks to his multi-directional rapidfire Buster. You may aim and fire in seven directions (all cardinals and diagonals except straight down), with four shots on screen at once. You can't move while you shoot, certainly what will annoy anti-Bassers, but you'll get used to jumping forward and shooting instead. Each bullet deals .5 damage to regular enemies and 1 unit of damage to bosses.

The bullet stream is so overwhelming that some enemies will actually lose their shield from constant impact. So far I've seen this shield-removing thing on Joe and those flying shield enemies.

Bass trades series classic slide for his trademark dash, and it's AWESOME because you get a speed boost for jumps. Can anyone say Mega Man X? I can. Same command as the slide, down + jump.

And speaking of boost, Treble makes an appearance via Treble Boost, Bass's mobility accessory. It works like Mega Man & Bass: call in Treble, use the d-pad to fly anywhere you want while the ammo bar plummets. Bass shoots three spread pellets while using Treble Boost. There is no Rush Coil or Jet-type power for Bass, makes sense. In the shop, you can buy power-up delivery à la Eddie, only it's Treble who rushes in to toss goodies on the floor. There's also a Treble Rescue, probably a Beat-type item?

On the story and presentation side:

- Bass has his own cutscenes and ending;
- He follows bosses with his eyes during stage select, like Mega Man;
- He makes his signature pose when entering levels;
- His shop comes with its own background and music, plus Reggae in a cameo;
- The title screen adds a picture of Bass next to Mega and Proto.

Also worth noting that you can select him from the character select screen, which is a step forward compared to Proto having his own "mode" in Mega Man 9.

Played as Bass on Hard mode, only using the Buster. THE BALLS!

Loved it.

Special Stage 1 (100 Wii Points)

A pity that these Special Stages are Time Attack-only, it would have been awesome to have them included in the main game somehow. Anyway, Time Attack-only also means that only Mega Man can play through them. And finally, it means that you just get one life per attempt, there are no checkpoints, and no way to restore your energy outside of what you can find in the stage. Prepare that skill of yours.

The stage is quite difficult, I thought. Some cheap falls, disappearing blocks and plenty of potential for speedy tricks. No mini-boss frenzy like the original Special Stage in Mega Man 9. I died on my first try in the middle of the stage (spikes), died against the boss, died AGAIN, then beat the level on my fourth attempt in 2:47.50.

The boss is Enker, from Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (Game Boy). He's a tough maniac, his pattern is a little erratic, and he doesn't have a weakness (well, they're releasing two more levels with two extra weapons, so maybe he's weak to Punk or Ballade).

When you beat him, you earn the Mirror Buster, which works kinda like Proto's shield, only what you send back to the enemy is a crescent blast. The best part is that Mega Man adds these secret weapons to his repertoire in the main game. They're available right off the bat, my one gripe with this, because it's like starting an alternate Castlevania mode with all the sub-weapons at once. Only Mega Man gets to use them in the main game, which is GREAT, since he doesn't really have an advantage over the other two.

Loved it.

Sooo, I got the first DLC wave for Mega Man 10.

Impressions per feature:

[b]Bass[/b] [i](200 Wii Points)[/i]

[spoiler]In many situations during a Bass run you don't need help from a weapon, thanks to his multi-directional rapidfire Buster. You may aim and fire in seven directions (all cardinals and diagonals except straight down), with four shots on screen at once. You can't move while you shoot, certainly what will annoy anti-Bassers, but you'll get used to jumping forward and shooting instead. Each bullet deals .5 damage to regular enemies and 1 unit of damage to bosses.

The bullet stream is so overwhelming that some enemies will actually lose their shield from constant impact. So far I've seen this shield-removing thing on Joe and those flying shield enemies.

Bass trades series classic slide for his trademark dash, and it's [i]AWESOME[/i] because you get a speed boost for jumps. Can anyone say Mega Man X? I can. Same command as the slide, down + jump.

And speaking of boost, Treble makes an appearance via Treble Boost, Bass's mobility accessory. It works like Mega Man & Bass: call in Treble, use the d-pad to fly anywhere you want while the ammo bar plummets. Bass shoots three spread pellets while using Treble Boost. There is no Rush Coil or Jet-type power for Bass, makes sense. In the shop, you can buy power-up delivery à la Eddie, only it's Treble who rushes in to toss goodies on the floor. There's also a Treble Rescue, probably a Beat-type item?

On the story and presentation side:

- Bass has his own cutscenes and ending;
- He follows bosses with his eyes during stage select, like Mega Man;
- He makes his signature pose when entering levels;
- His shop comes with its own background and music, plus Reggae in a cameo;
- The title screen adds a picture of Bass next to Mega and Proto.

Also worth noting that you can select him from the character select screen, which is a step forward compared to Proto having his own "mode" in Mega Man 9.

Played as Bass on Hard mode, only using the Buster. THE BALLS!

Loved it.
[/spoiler]
[b]Special Stage 1[/b] [i](100 Wii Points)[/i]

[spoiler]A pity that these Special Stages are Time Attack-only, it would have been awesome to have them included in the main game somehow. Anyway, Time Attack-only also means that only Mega Man can play through them. And finally, it means that you just get one life per attempt, there are no checkpoints, and no way to restore your energy outside of what you can find in the stage. Prepare that skill of yours.

The stage is quite difficult, I thought. Some cheap falls, disappearing blocks and plenty of potential for speedy tricks. No mini-boss frenzy like the original Special Stage in Mega Man 9. I died on my first try in the middle of the stage (spikes), died against the boss, died AGAIN, then beat the level on my fourth attempt in 2:47.50.

The boss is Enker, from Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (Game Boy). He's a tough maniac, his pattern is a little erratic, and he doesn't have a weakness (well, they're releasing two more levels with two extra weapons, so maybe he's weak to Punk or Ballade).

When you beat him, you earn the Mirror Buster, which works kinda like Proto's shield, only what you send back to the enemy is a crescent blast. The best part is that Mega Man adds these secret weapons to his repertoire in the main game. They're available right off the bat, my one gripe with this, because it's like starting an alternate Castlevania mode with all the sub-weapons at once. Only Mega Man gets to use them in the main game, which is GREAT, since he doesn't really have an advantage over the other two.

Loved it.[/spoiler]

TheGreenManalishi

2010-04-06 09:29:30 am

I can't decide what to play, Zone of the Enders, MGS3 or Capcom Vs. SNK 2. Or I could find my GBASP charger and carry on with Link's Awakening. People of m2k2 - what should I do?

arkarian

2010-04-06 12:13:20 pm

red chamber dream

link's awakening - the others are lame.

TheGreenManalishi

Edit history:

TheGreenManalishi: 2010-04-06 01:37:21 pm

2010-04-06 12:53:47 pm

I couldn't find the charger so I dabbled with the others. And anyone who says MGS3 is lame will be destroyed. Say what you like about the other MGSes, 3 is fantastic.

And ZOE and CvS2 are indeed lame and I'm shit at them, but that doesn't stop them being fun.

ryu

2010-04-06 03:07:07 pm

MM10 DLC sounds awesome. Hopefully I'll be able to find some points card tomorrow.

tomatobob

2010-04-06 05:24:27 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from TheGreenManalishi:

Say what you like about the other MGSes, 3 is fantastic.

3 is the only Metal Gear game I'd ever consider playing because, based on everything I've seen, it doesn't take itself completely seriously and the stealth mechanics are more interesting than 'hide behind this thing until they go away'.

Quietus

2010-04-06 06:53:55 pm

Super Secret Area - Dead Ahead!

Quote from arkarian:

link's awakening

Quote from TheGreenManalishi:

I couldn't find the charger

There is only one solution regarding what to play. Find the charger. Razz

Mista_Smegheneghan

2010-04-06 07:32:09 pm

Ready to internet!

Quote from Quietus:

Quote from arkarian:

link's awakening

Quote from TheGreenManalishi:

I couldn't find the charger

There is only one solution regarding what to play. Find the charger. Razz

This.

In other news, I beat Touhou PCB on Normal mode, but it's now asking me to beat it without Continues to get a better ending. What the shit.

072

2010-04-06 07:38:34 pm

coral to complement blue

Try playing as Sakuya A if you aren't already. It makes everything so much easier.

I need to get around to beating the extra stage one of these days...

Toozin

2010-04-06 08:57:26 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

Link's Awakening > anything and everything. This shouldn't even be a debate.

nn12000

2010-04-06 09:50:40 pm

Mister ...

So there seems to be a bunch of Hollywood Video and GameCrazys closing. At one I went to, they had Children of Mana for $14, plus 20% off. Even though I've yet to beat Secret of Mana, I decided to pick it up. Gave myself a bit of a preview. The Mission-style reminds me of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and that was actually one of my favorite bits about it :P.

Just gonna have to look out for Advance and the PSone Sword of Mana. Hoping the latter becomes available on PSN soon. :P