Well, after some thought, I decided to give a hearty "meh" and put Disgaea down for a while. I've finally, finally got to play with my new toy, a PS3 (I've been current exactly twice when it comes to video games, yuck it up.)
Being an RPG specialist and a Lord of the Harvest, I picked up Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. It been a while since I've played a game that let me feel like a total badass within ten minutes of firing a game up. No picking an archetype and being stuck with, no sir! Right off the bat you can smack the unworthy with big swords, get all stabbytown with daggers, and fling fireballs of blazing doom upon those that displease you. I plan to get as close as I can get to being a Magitek Commando, and lay waste with whatever tools I see fit at any given moment.
I tell you, the forces of badness are in a great deal of trouble. They shall fall in their multitudes, releasing the wonderful, wonderful shinies, then they have permission to die.
Gadflow, you're in for it now!
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Where Grinding Is A Pleasure
Why, spambots, why is this crap so much fun? Tell me!
I've poured over 70 hours into Disgaea: Hour of Darkness now. That's more than enough to make pretty much any non-Nippon Ichi SRPG cry and give you its lunch money. And I'm not even close to done with the main storyline yet, much less the grindfest insanity of the bonus content.
Maybe I'm just not grinding efficiently enough. It took me a while to realize I need to be using grind-focused specialists to get going (Armsmasters, Statisticians, and to a lesser extent Managers), and got a bit too hung up on grabbing and taming them in low-level loot to realize that I was leaving the higher-level stuff alone. This resulted in me wasting time farming really crappy mooks. While this can be entertaining, my agri-combine of death just really wasn't getting any better at harvesting the unworthy. All of this was a bit exacerbated by my horrible little habit of playing stuff late at night, after a full shift at work; I simply wasn't registering that things weren't being done just right.
But, hopefully, I've corrected the flaw in my plan, and now the Harvest has gotten a good jump-start. Soon, the foolish enemy hordes will be laid waste, and their shinies will serve to fuel further conquests.
Final Fantasy Legend 2 is also proceeding fairly well. There are some hiccups, but nothing that I didn't anticipate, really. The biggest problem is that stat growth can be influenced by character actions, but still has a large degree of randomness. You can sit there and grind for a good while, but never get much of anywhere (except HP boosts, usually) if the game's RNG decides it doesn't like you. Some luminous soul at Square tried to punish grinding techniques by including breakable equipment, but cash is Final Fanasy-level plentiful, so its merely annoying without the controller-breaking rage later SaGa games could induce in the unprepared. But things are going well all things considered. I managed to get through the first real boss fight without getting flattened, which is a big deal for a my pack of nooblets.
In any case, things are going fairly well overall. We shall see how much they progress, and hopefully I can put Disgaea to bed soon. Then the Reckoning begins!
I've poured over 70 hours into Disgaea: Hour of Darkness now. That's more than enough to make pretty much any non-Nippon Ichi SRPG cry and give you its lunch money. And I'm not even close to done with the main storyline yet, much less the grindfest insanity of the bonus content.
Maybe I'm just not grinding efficiently enough. It took me a while to realize I need to be using grind-focused specialists to get going (Armsmasters, Statisticians, and to a lesser extent Managers), and got a bit too hung up on grabbing and taming them in low-level loot to realize that I was leaving the higher-level stuff alone. This resulted in me wasting time farming really crappy mooks. While this can be entertaining, my agri-combine of death just really wasn't getting any better at harvesting the unworthy. All of this was a bit exacerbated by my horrible little habit of playing stuff late at night, after a full shift at work; I simply wasn't registering that things weren't being done just right.
But, hopefully, I've corrected the flaw in my plan, and now the Harvest has gotten a good jump-start. Soon, the foolish enemy hordes will be laid waste, and their shinies will serve to fuel further conquests.
Final Fantasy Legend 2 is also proceeding fairly well. There are some hiccups, but nothing that I didn't anticipate, really. The biggest problem is that stat growth can be influenced by character actions, but still has a large degree of randomness. You can sit there and grind for a good while, but never get much of anywhere (except HP boosts, usually) if the game's RNG decides it doesn't like you. Some luminous soul at Square tried to punish grinding techniques by including breakable equipment, but cash is Final Fanasy-level plentiful, so its merely annoying without the controller-breaking rage later SaGa games could induce in the unprepared. But things are going well all things considered. I managed to get through the first real boss fight without getting flattened, which is a big deal for a my pack of nooblets.
In any case, things are going fairly well overall. We shall see how much they progress, and hopefully I can put Disgaea to bed soon. Then the Reckoning begins!
Friday, December 25, 2015
I Get Sweet Swag
And all I'm doing is playing with the coffee cup that stirs stuff by itself. Whirr...
Honestly, I went out of my to not ask for much, but everybody got offended that I asked for things that we're games and movies and stuff. Go figure. Wound up making a second list because of it.
But anyway, the more things change, the more they stay the same indeed. Today, I wound up with something that I plan to treasure properly this time: a working copy of Final Fantasy Legend II.
This, this, was the game that sparked everything for me. I was 12 or 13, maybe even younger. I had played the hell out of Mario and early Zelda and other stuff, and somebody let me borrow a copy of this weird little game, it had numbers and static combat screens and incredibly boring overworld maps and stuff, stuff that most kids turned up their noses at. But it got plugged into the old grey brick and the magic happened.
It had a little of everything. You could make a party of four from humans, mutants (updated later to espers, but still just JRPG-flavored elves), robots(!), and monsters (Protip: one human, one mutant, one robot, and one monster for maximum awesomeness). You got to tear around use all sorts of weapons and slaughter a ridiculous amount of mooks and monsters. You could seriously equip a damn tank and fight gods with it. Pick a pantheon, by the way. Chances are good you fought a member of it at some point. You got to hear some the best stuff to ever be pumped out of a Game Boy's speakers ever. This game was Kenji Ito's first big break (yes, that Kenji Ito), and it shows. It even had serious longevity and world-building. It had all sorts of worlds and dungeons to explore. Granted, the GB-level limitations and old-school tilesets made things kinda samey, but everything managed to have a bit of a different flavor anyway. I seriously can just keep fanboying and expounding for a least a few more paragraphs.
Yes, I know this actually SaGa 2, and all the inherent problems that SaGa games have are very much present. But it was and is still very much old-school JRPG awesomesauce. It triggered my nerdy specialty, and even now I focus on them numbers and the party-building and all that good stuff. It would lead into Final Fantasy VI, RoboTrek, Chrono Trigger, and these would cement a special basement-shaped place into my nerdy li'l heart.
But now, it is confession time. I loved this game all to pieces, and played the snot out of it--but I never manged to beat the game without cheating. I could tear my way all the way to the final boss, but the damn thing kicked my ass constantly and consistently. It would take three years later and a Game Genie to be able to actually see the end credits and put the game to bed. It's one of those dumb little things that shouldn't be nagging me (even using the GG didn't erase the challenge, just gave me the fighting chance I needed), especially since I was kinda, y'know, a kid. But it quietly stayed in the back of my head for a long time now. I can claim all sorts of JRPGs on my Kill list, and all of them without cheat codes or hacks or anything. But this one stayed on the Cheat list.
But here I am now, twenty years later, and the time is nigh. I plugged it into my GBA, flipped the switch, and it all came back to me. I very much recognize that it's an incredibly childish thing to get all riled up over, but there it is. No longer am I the little asthmatic fresh from beating Mario Land 2 the umpteenth time; I am Wulfe Luer, the guy who could beat Wiegraf in Final Fantasy Tactics without super grinding or cheating (Protip: the much-maligned Lancer class is the key to making him your bitch). I am Wulfe Luer, that tore through all sorts of RPG-flavored insanity and asked for more. And I will. Not. Be. Denied!
There it is. It has all come full circle now. I'm a grown-ass man, with a full-time job, grown-ass bills, and other grown-ass problems, and I'm getting agitated over a 20-year old Game Boy game. It's hilarious. Hello, Dork Side, I've missed you.
The time is come, and I shall use all the (legit) method at my disposal, and soon, the Harvest shall be visited upon the pixellated forces of badness once again. Arsenal, your end is nigh!
Honestly, I went out of my to not ask for much, but everybody got offended that I asked for things that we're games and movies and stuff. Go figure. Wound up making a second list because of it.
But anyway, the more things change, the more they stay the same indeed. Today, I wound up with something that I plan to treasure properly this time: a working copy of Final Fantasy Legend II.
This, this, was the game that sparked everything for me. I was 12 or 13, maybe even younger. I had played the hell out of Mario and early Zelda and other stuff, and somebody let me borrow a copy of this weird little game, it had numbers and static combat screens and incredibly boring overworld maps and stuff, stuff that most kids turned up their noses at. But it got plugged into the old grey brick and the magic happened.
It had a little of everything. You could make a party of four from humans, mutants (updated later to espers, but still just JRPG-flavored elves), robots(!), and monsters (Protip: one human, one mutant, one robot, and one monster for maximum awesomeness). You got to tear around use all sorts of weapons and slaughter a ridiculous amount of mooks and monsters. You could seriously equip a damn tank and fight gods with it. Pick a pantheon, by the way. Chances are good you fought a member of it at some point. You got to hear some the best stuff to ever be pumped out of a Game Boy's speakers ever. This game was Kenji Ito's first big break (yes, that Kenji Ito), and it shows. It even had serious longevity and world-building. It had all sorts of worlds and dungeons to explore. Granted, the GB-level limitations and old-school tilesets made things kinda samey, but everything managed to have a bit of a different flavor anyway. I seriously can just keep fanboying and expounding for a least a few more paragraphs.
Yes, I know this actually SaGa 2, and all the inherent problems that SaGa games have are very much present. But it was and is still very much old-school JRPG awesomesauce. It triggered my nerdy specialty, and even now I focus on them numbers and the party-building and all that good stuff. It would lead into Final Fantasy VI, RoboTrek, Chrono Trigger, and these would cement a special basement-shaped place into my nerdy li'l heart.
But now, it is confession time. I loved this game all to pieces, and played the snot out of it--but I never manged to beat the game without cheating. I could tear my way all the way to the final boss, but the damn thing kicked my ass constantly and consistently. It would take three years later and a Game Genie to be able to actually see the end credits and put the game to bed. It's one of those dumb little things that shouldn't be nagging me (even using the GG didn't erase the challenge, just gave me the fighting chance I needed), especially since I was kinda, y'know, a kid. But it quietly stayed in the back of my head for a long time now. I can claim all sorts of JRPGs on my Kill list, and all of them without cheat codes or hacks or anything. But this one stayed on the Cheat list.
But here I am now, twenty years later, and the time is nigh. I plugged it into my GBA, flipped the switch, and it all came back to me. I very much recognize that it's an incredibly childish thing to get all riled up over, but there it is. No longer am I the little asthmatic fresh from beating Mario Land 2 the umpteenth time; I am Wulfe Luer, the guy who could beat Wiegraf in Final Fantasy Tactics without super grinding or cheating (Protip: the much-maligned Lancer class is the key to making him your bitch). I am Wulfe Luer, that tore through all sorts of RPG-flavored insanity and asked for more. And I will. Not. Be. Denied!
There it is. It has all come full circle now. I'm a grown-ass man, with a full-time job, grown-ass bills, and other grown-ass problems, and I'm getting agitated over a 20-year old Game Boy game. It's hilarious. Hello, Dork Side, I've missed you.
The time is come, and I shall use all the (legit) method at my disposal, and soon, the Harvest shall be visited upon the pixellated forces of badness once again. Arsenal, your end is nigh!
Monday, December 21, 2015
The Force Is Meh With This One
The Force has awakened, but like most of its fans, really could use some caffeine.
I'll try not to include spoilers except the following major ones: there's plenty of flashy death, badass military hardware, and Threepio has been marked as the evil he is with a red arm.
It's not terrible, or even bad, honestly. The effects and acting is actually pretty well done. There is a fair bit of awkwardness here and there, but nothings that actually detracts from the movie. I will say there is a certain scene that makes all the "I am your father" jokes funny on a whole new level.
But its not particularly great either, to be sure. It felt like a fairly rehashed collection of plot elements, mixed with a bit of serial escalation. Yes, that thing on the poster is what it looks like, by the way.
Ooh, the hardware. Somebody figured out that people like custom paint jobs and evolving the vehicles as time goes on. There's probably a lot of griping about how everything looks like an Apple product, but its a lot more toned down compared to a certain pair of abominations that stand as insults to Trekkie-kind. It's all very flashy and awesome, but it doesn't try to overwhelm you with everything and fry your eyeballs. The weapons are awesome without being anime-level ludicrous. Iconic stuff like the X-Wings and TIEs have been updated and redone without looking completely unfamiliar. It's all like a big level up, but still very much Star Wars.
I won't go into the characters and story, since its all very spoiler-y right now. Possibly a few months down the road, once the fanbois have stopped spontaneously combusting. In the meantime we will return to our regularly unscheduled ramblings.
I'll try not to include spoilers except the following major ones: there's plenty of flashy death, badass military hardware, and Threepio has been marked as the evil he is with a red arm.
It's not terrible, or even bad, honestly. The effects and acting is actually pretty well done. There is a fair bit of awkwardness here and there, but nothings that actually detracts from the movie. I will say there is a certain scene that makes all the "I am your father" jokes funny on a whole new level.
But its not particularly great either, to be sure. It felt like a fairly rehashed collection of plot elements, mixed with a bit of serial escalation. Yes, that thing on the poster is what it looks like, by the way.
Ooh, the hardware. Somebody figured out that people like custom paint jobs and evolving the vehicles as time goes on. There's probably a lot of griping about how everything looks like an Apple product, but its a lot more toned down compared to a certain pair of abominations that stand as insults to Trekkie-kind. It's all very flashy and awesome, but it doesn't try to overwhelm you with everything and fry your eyeballs. The weapons are awesome without being anime-level ludicrous. Iconic stuff like the X-Wings and TIEs have been updated and redone without looking completely unfamiliar. It's all like a big level up, but still very much Star Wars.
I won't go into the characters and story, since its all very spoiler-y right now. Possibly a few months down the road, once the fanbois have stopped spontaneously combusting. In the meantime we will return to our regularly unscheduled ramblings.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Death By Penguin
Well, penguin-like suits that have souls stuffed in them. Wonder if somebody at NIS decided to take fursuiting to its explosive conclusion. Damn things are still really funny, though.
In any case, the Harvest continues! Thanks to the wonders of Disgaea's Transmigration mechanic, my party grows ever closer to becoming the ideal meat-mulching agri-combine of death. And thanks to the item world (now affectionately called Lootception), the doom train is being fueled by the constant influx of wonderful, wonderful shinies. The game is still fairly challenging, and the quirkiness of the games setting and characters are still very much entertaining. NIS really did a wonderful thing, and this is probably the closest thing we'll ever have to Munchkin: The Video Game. You tear about murderizing various idiots and freaks and steal their stuff, then run back to home base to bribe the government into giving you better abilities, more powerful classes, and extra glittery shinies to plunder. And everybody thinks that its totally awesome!
In slightly related news, all sorts of new goodies have managed to find their way here, and hopefully the Harvest will continue in all new places and forms.
In any case, the Harvest continues! Thanks to the wonders of Disgaea's Transmigration mechanic, my party grows ever closer to becoming the ideal meat-mulching agri-combine of death. And thanks to the item world (now affectionately called Lootception), the doom train is being fueled by the constant influx of wonderful, wonderful shinies. The game is still fairly challenging, and the quirkiness of the games setting and characters are still very much entertaining. NIS really did a wonderful thing, and this is probably the closest thing we'll ever have to Munchkin: The Video Game. You tear about murderizing various idiots and freaks and steal their stuff, then run back to home base to bribe the government into giving you better abilities, more powerful classes, and extra glittery shinies to plunder. And everybody thinks that its totally awesome!
In slightly related news, all sorts of new goodies have managed to find their way here, and hopefully the Harvest will continue in all new places and forms.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Grinding Has Never Been So Much Fun
Well, since somebody is staring at my stuff...
Yes, I'm still tearing through Disgaea like it's going out of style (not that it was ever in style to begin with.)
Yes, I'm still having an inexplicable blast doing so. It's actually fairy disconcerting. I very literally spent three days worth of gaming time grinding up some items so I can steal a damn horse wiener.
Outside of Disgaea and certain fetish groups, I doubt that's much of a goal that people set.
It's become a cliche, how JRPGs (short for Just Repeated Power Grinding or Japan Roves Proronged Grinding) have gotten us accustomed to the chore of power-leveling and farming drops and such like for decades now. Semi-hardcore types like myself have been developing techniques to handle the chore just as long. It's become a joke. Sometimes its fairly painless, sometimes its pointlessly laborious, sometimes you get a game in the genre that will punish you for ever trying (I'm looking at you Romancing SaGa). But here's a game that took the idea of stubbornly slogging through levels in the name of the inner muchkin and...
...Made it fun! It takes all the wild (and vicious) randomness of procedurally generated levels of loot from rougelikes, tossed in a liberal helping of brainiac grid-based tactic gameplay, and then brought in some epic-level wackiness to spice things up. Why I didn't latch onto this series will be a mystery for the ages.
Well, that's enough gushing for now. Under the circumstances, expect more rampant fanboyism about this game for good few weeks. Hopefully I will some have slightly more coherent stuff as well. Until then, The Harvest will continue!
Yes, I'm still tearing through Disgaea like it's going out of style (not that it was ever in style to begin with.)
Yes, I'm still having an inexplicable blast doing so. It's actually fairy disconcerting. I very literally spent three days worth of gaming time grinding up some items so I can steal a damn horse wiener.
Outside of Disgaea and certain fetish groups, I doubt that's much of a goal that people set.
It's become a cliche, how JRPGs (short for Just Repeated Power Grinding or Japan Roves Proronged Grinding) have gotten us accustomed to the chore of power-leveling and farming drops and such like for decades now. Semi-hardcore types like myself have been developing techniques to handle the chore just as long. It's become a joke. Sometimes its fairly painless, sometimes its pointlessly laborious, sometimes you get a game in the genre that will punish you for ever trying (I'm looking at you Romancing SaGa). But here's a game that took the idea of stubbornly slogging through levels in the name of the inner muchkin and...
...Made it fun! It takes all the wild (and vicious) randomness of procedurally generated levels of loot from rougelikes, tossed in a liberal helping of brainiac grid-based tactic gameplay, and then brought in some epic-level wackiness to spice things up. Why I didn't latch onto this series will be a mystery for the ages.
Well, that's enough gushing for now. Under the circumstances, expect more rampant fanboyism about this game for good few weeks. Hopefully I will some have slightly more coherent stuff as well. Until then, The Harvest will continue!
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Plundering The Countryside
Ha, you're still not rid of me yet!
I've been making strides in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. It's still pretty fun so far. The most fun part so far is still very much the Item World. I still get a kick out what really comes across as what happens when you stick Diablo-style random loot dungeon crawling into a grid-based SRPG. What really pulls it over the top is that you take the goodies you earn in the item world and jump into their item world and get even more loot and jump into their item worlds. Screw Candy Crush, this is the proper way to waste time! It gets even better since you also level up the stats of the item you're working through, and hunt down "specialists" that act much like, say, Diablo III's gems.
All of this is a wonderful sideshow to some of the best SRPG goodness I've ever been exposed to. The mechanics are pretty solid. I'm honestly none-too-pleased with not getting an in-battle revival mechanic, but that is very much small potatoes to just being able to mass heal and rez your dudes after battle. I'm something of a softie when it comes to my mooks, so throwing out permadeath is always a plus for me. I also love how Disgaea is happy to throw big swarms of baddies at me. Twenty-plus enemy groups? The Harvest Cometh for thee!
Another plus is that in addition to the fun main characters, the generic units are also very characterful and enjoyable. Thanks to the joys of random name generators, I wound up with a ninja named Konga, and promptly gave him an axe (as opposed to the recommended fist). So has begun the grand saga of Konga The Axe Ninja! When he's not part of my agri-combine of death, cleaving the unworthy in twain, he's in charge of turning trees into those logs that other, lesser, ninja use for those substitution-dodge stunts they like. Another fun head-canon is the duo of Jaccard and Oscar, my thief and ranger that tear about filling the air with lead and plundering the place, while yelling like maniacs. Now you see while I hate permadeath in video games?
In any case, you people will have the displeasure of hearing me natter on at length about this game again soon enough. You will also hear me bewail the fact that someone was foolish enough to give me a PS3 for my birthday, and even more countrysides will learn what it is to meet The Harvest!
I've been making strides in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. It's still pretty fun so far. The most fun part so far is still very much the Item World. I still get a kick out what really comes across as what happens when you stick Diablo-style random loot dungeon crawling into a grid-based SRPG. What really pulls it over the top is that you take the goodies you earn in the item world and jump into their item world and get even more loot and jump into their item worlds. Screw Candy Crush, this is the proper way to waste time! It gets even better since you also level up the stats of the item you're working through, and hunt down "specialists" that act much like, say, Diablo III's gems.
All of this is a wonderful sideshow to some of the best SRPG goodness I've ever been exposed to. The mechanics are pretty solid. I'm honestly none-too-pleased with not getting an in-battle revival mechanic, but that is very much small potatoes to just being able to mass heal and rez your dudes after battle. I'm something of a softie when it comes to my mooks, so throwing out permadeath is always a plus for me. I also love how Disgaea is happy to throw big swarms of baddies at me. Twenty-plus enemy groups? The Harvest Cometh for thee!
Another plus is that in addition to the fun main characters, the generic units are also very characterful and enjoyable. Thanks to the joys of random name generators, I wound up with a ninja named Konga, and promptly gave him an axe (as opposed to the recommended fist). So has begun the grand saga of Konga The Axe Ninja! When he's not part of my agri-combine of death, cleaving the unworthy in twain, he's in charge of turning trees into those logs that other, lesser, ninja use for those substitution-dodge stunts they like. Another fun head-canon is the duo of Jaccard and Oscar, my thief and ranger that tear about filling the air with lead and plundering the place, while yelling like maniacs. Now you see while I hate permadeath in video games?
In any case, you people will have the displeasure of hearing me natter on at length about this game again soon enough. You will also hear me bewail the fact that someone was foolish enough to give me a PS3 for my birthday, and even more countrysides will learn what it is to meet The Harvest!
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