Games you are playing

[scy]

[Anima Zero]

FFVII - Playing a hardtype hack of this game. Enemies hit harder (Obviously!), most equipments are modified (Some are removed I hear), materia is changed in MP cost and effectiveness (Namely HP/MP Pluses provide half their usual bonuses. Probably the other stat buffing materia too), character stats are nerfed (Character's max HP levels are hovering around 650-700 at lv30-31...except Yuffie who's lv27 and has like 440 HP with a +5% bonus from one HP Plus materia, heh), and some drops/steals are changed, but those are mostly relegated to the Midgar section of the game.

Also, bosses are immune to poison now. No more easy streeting it with one person soaking up all the damage while poison works its magic like previous betas.

Gi Nattak can't be insta killed by Phoenix Downs or Life anymore, nor can he be damaged by healing spells. Joy.

Just cleared the Temple of the Ancients. Demon's Gate...well, I screwed it up badly enough where I had to solo it with Cloud. 2100-ish HP remaining for the boss and the fact a double rock drop or crit rock drop without Barrier + Sadness meant it was GG for me.

Still, it wasn't the goddamn Materia Keeper. Cure2/Trine combo is evil now, that is all.

Should be able to finish Disc 1 tonight and get started on Disc 2.

Seraphic Blue - Currently there's a translation going on for this game. The newest update for it which just came out a few days ago is translated up to the start of Ep18. Started playing this game last night.

Pretty goddamn awesome game right now. Story is interesting, battle system is simple and fun to get acquainted with, and the sphere system makes for tons of customizing.

Finally...holy christ this game is HARD as goddamn hell.

I've only cleared the 2nd dungeon...and I've Game Over'd 3 times.

First game over came in the first dungeon because apparently enemies can do a normal attack or a hard attack (Higher damage, but they take longer to get their next turn). I thought that was a crit hit at first. Whee.

Second game over was the ice elemental spamming devils in the 2nd dungeon. 3 vs 1...oh god why.

Next...GOD. DAMN. RAFFLESIAS.

Rafflesias have 1600 HP and appear as a single enemy...for good reason. Considering the rest of the enemies encountered in the 2nd dungeon have around 250-400 HP or so, this is insane. I basically have to spam my only fire spell 4, maybe 5 times, to drop it.

Rafflesias can attack normally, doing around 80-90 damage...and I think that's just a normal attack. Hard attack...god no. Lake has around 455 HP or so at lv5. Christ D:.

They also have Swallow. What does this do? You take half your current HP in damage. Geez seriously game D:?

Oh yeah, did I mention the normal attack and Swallow can both induce Poison and that the Poison status in this game does 20% of your max HP in damage every time the afflicted character gets to act? Yup.

So if the Rafflesia did Swallow and poisoned you at full HP...congrats, your Lake just lost 70% of his HP.

Guess how I got that 3rd game over? Swallow, Poisoned, it didn't end well after that.

Thank god I have a 2nd party member now, but still...sheesh, this game is extremely brutal starting out.

[Maxine MagicFox]

*mutters* Question: you guys know that I'm not into the numbers part of a game or anything like that and in the general sense of things I'm more of a casual gamer: do you think I would be able to comfortably enjoy Skyrim? I like fun gameplay and get a LITTLE bit into the "OH! Firesword is better than Icedagger but Icedagger might be better for my character....."

Or should I just stay away from it and not even bother and strike it from my Christmas list?

[scy]

"Fuck the numbers" is probably the best way to enjoy it, otherwise you break the game and it becomes less fun. There's ... little need to keep track of any numbers. Just play for the sake of playing.

Edit: To put it into perspective, I know basically all the math behind about everything for Skyrim by now. Every single one of my characters doesn't actually utilize basically any of it.

"Fun" gameplay, though ... Skyrim combat is pretty boring in all honesty. But the world and everything that goes along with it just has a beautiful sense of immersion (and the game looks fucking awesome) that makes up for it.

[Maxine MagicFox]

Hrrrrrm... just worries me..... I absolutely couldn't get into Morrowind (not that I hated it... just was bored by it) and I'm worried that this game would be a waste of money.

Well, I'll leave it on my Christmas List. If my family gets it for me at least "I" didn't waste money if I decide I didn't like it LOL

[scy]

Depends on why you didn't like Morrowind. Skyrim is pulling in a lot of people who didn't like Oblivion or Morrowind so things may have been fixed. Combat is a bit better though still lacking. Not that combat itself is a major part of enjoying an Elder Scrolls title. Progression is leaps and bounds better than Oblivion. Locales are more varied than before, though there's still a lot of "This is a cave, this is also a cave" but there's nearly 400 locations so jesus, dealwithit.gif. And, hey, there's more than two voice actors.

Skyrim is basically a game about having the adventure of your character that you create; there's nothing limiting you on what you do* besides how you want to take your character. Basically everything that you'd expect me to hate since "lol rp" is my mantra but I love the fuck out of Skyrim.

*Alright, there's some quests that resolve in ways outside your control (i.e., no "Fuck them all" option for some quests) short of not doing them.

[Maxine MagicFox]

..... :\ I think one of the things that I disliked with Morrowind was that.... I wasn't really ever sure where to GO and what to do.

Only on my second playthrough did I realize "oh lol flea" and tried to run through things to get to where I needed to go and found a huge expanse of..... o_O; nothingness. Landscape upon landscape upon landscape and when I DID come across a monster, it usually killed me or was so pathetically whimpy that it wasn't an effort.

Or, on my second playthrough, I ran into some woman who EXPECTED me to do some three day quest into an area that I couldn't survive (though the mark on the map said I had reached the spot) and then she got mad and left and I'm like "....what the fuck, bitch..."

The fighting was probably the worst and pissed me off very often. There was no enemy health bar, there was no sound effect that I had caused the monster damage, it didn't blink, nothing. I had no idea how much damage I was even doing to the monster. And it was completely lackluster. Like the fighting was put in as an afterthought.

[scy]

[PLA]

Does Steel Smithing work on stuff like scimitars and Skyforge steel? I'm fairly sure Ebony Smithing works on Ebony Mail even though it's not a regular ebony armour.

And math is pretty much optional. "Lol sandbox-difficulty" is something I find myself saying often.

[SirthOsiris]

Yeah, if you hit anything in Skyrim, it'll hit. Became kind of annoyed of dice rolling in action/RPG Morrowind.
3D view is also a bit better.

And as Scy said, it's open world. You head off in a direction, and if you find something cool, props. At least now there's a reason to jump into some dungeons if the whim takes you (Word Walls). And there's actual quest markers, so you can't get lost (you actually need them since most quests will NOT tell you where to go, because it chooses for you). Most difficult quests would be various thiefy ones, like the guild, maybe some sneaky ones in certain quests, and anything involving a dragon solo.
Hardest things you'll have to face are Dragons and bosses. Harder difficulties will require some thinking and positioning to beat them. Though I advise doing a bit of the main quest to get a couple shouts (max Unrelenting Force, Whirlwind Sprint).
You might get lost trying to actually GET there, especially if it's on a mountain. That'll require some trial and error, but who knows? You might find something along the way.

[PLA]

^ And you are rewarded for putting random things in your mouth much like a deranged toddler.

[Drathi]

Also, if you do get Skyrim, try to get Feim as well. Juping off a mountain and surviving is the most amazing thing ever... That and walking through a hall of flamethrowing traps like a boss.

[scy]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[PLA]