The NEW Game Journal

[kyuusei]

Agreed. I see nothing wrong with the combos in CT. If it's because they take up two or three characters' turns - well, that's why they're so powerful, which makes up for it. The only single tech that compares to any triple tech is Chrono's Luminaire. I used the combos plenty without issue even when I played the game for the first time. Strange argument if you ask me.

[Annubis]

Finished Suikoden 1 at 22 hours. I had to finish it within a week before giving it back, which was pretty easy with a FAQ.
I'm now restarting Suikoden 2 with an actual Suikoden 1 save.

It's true that it's nicer to play Suikoden 2 while knowing some of the cast's past. I'm enjoying the start a lot more now.

[Demon_Princess_Kay]

I played way too much Dissidia 012 this weekend. I now have like 10 level 100s. Terra, Yuna, Laguna, Gabranth, Lightning, Tifa, Prishe, Gilgamesh, Cloud, and Zidane.

[Eusis]

Legend of Heroes II Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch: I refuse to play TiTS untill we know for sure that part 2 and 3 are coming, so I'm playing through the old LoH trilogy instead. I'm really liking the second (first) game. It's a very charming traditional (*very traditional*) JRPG with a simple, but effective story, and a very basic, but relatively fun battle system (it sort of reminds me of Lunar). I like the characters and the fact that it's one of those games that really make you feel like you're on a grand journey. I'm on chapter 3 and really having fun. The translation is bad (there are some words missing here and there, typos, etc.), although it's not Wild Arms 2 bad or even Final Fantasy VII bad. I mean, you know exactly what's going on and it's even occasionally funny, but it's just sort of bland and without much flair most of the time. In general, though, I don't think it really detracts from my enjoyment of the game. I'm definitely going to play through A Tear of Vermillion and the third game sooner rather than later.

Part of the reason this was blasted was also because of the change in the combat system, though that's a complaint from long time Falcom fans and those that played the PSP version of Moonlight Witch (apparently the other two games had the same battle engine on both shores, but not on the PC). And the problem with not getting Trails in the Sky (assuming you didn't buy it then decided to wait on actually starting it anyway) is that it's something of a potential catch 22: they won't localize the other games unless the first one's a success, but it won't be a success if everyone doesn't buy it in favor of waiting on the sequels! HOWEVER, do keep in mind all three are licensed by them, VA's done for all three, and the third game was made because of positive fan response to the first two. I can admittedly understand not wanting to get into 1 until 2's nearly out, but you'll only do yourself a disservice if you don't start at all until all 3 are out since 2 is supposed to complete the story.

Anyways! Today's the day that P4 started, so I decided it was a good time to restart the game. Despite getting 7 hours in I didn't feel like I really made much progress, I was only about 2 weeks in and it was something like 4 or so hours of raw exposition, so that left about 2-3 hours of actually playing. Of course, that also means that my "restart" is still in the middle of plot exposition.

[supersonic]

Just to clarify my post, I have the Limited Edition of Trails in the Sky right here on my shelf.

[Yoda]

Been kinda busy. So got back into dead space tonight. On the marine ship and the bad guys are moving all fast and erratic. This part is freaky.

[Darklight]

20hrs into Eternal Sonata, had this game for ages and only started it last week. I'm enjoying it more then I thought I would. The Chopin related intermissions seem to repeat themselves a bit,,

[Demon_Princess_Kay]

20hrs into Eternal Sonata, had this game for ages and only started it last week. I'm enjoying it more then I thought I would. The Chopin related intermissions seem to repeat themselves a bit,,

I loved the art style and the story wasn't bad, but combat was ugh, repetitive and boring to me.

[Lard]

Found a copy of Super Mario All Stars for Wii yesterday :D

[kyuusei]

Lots of Mass Effect 2. Got all my teammates, told Ashley to piss off, did all the DLC except Arrival, bullied all the shops into giving me discounts, and currently going through loyalty missions. Oh and I just told the Council to shove it and punched a reporter.

I love renegade Jennifer Hale!Shepard. Only thing is I don't know who to romance.

[Aeolus]

Just had to go back for this. Namely to warn you to never play Chrono Cross.

I liked CC a hell of a lot more than CT, in the sense that I actually liked CC.

My problem with Chrono Cross is that the plot is either completely pointless or a massive clusterfuck wall of text. My playthrough of Radiant Historia makes me wish that it was Chrono Cross rather than Chrono Cross. You're actually stepping through time and dimensions and not for some silly reason like you've lost a fixed game and now must become a cat (through a lengthy and involved process) to unfix the game so that you can win a bet so that you can go to the bowels of the ship so that you can talk to an old man so that you can stage a rock opera so that you can wake a dragon and get one of six plot macguffins needed so that you can resume traveling between dimensions, but for reasons like getting stuck in an unwinnable scenario and having to travel back in time or to an alternate timeline to either pick up a skill or pass on a warning to get around the situation with a reduced amount of loses. Basically, there was rarely ever a point where you could even use the alternate timeline gimmick in Chrono Cross aside from getting one of your party members to meet with themselves and be like "Oh? Cool! Another me. Here you go me, have a lv7 tech.". Comically enough, the period where you need to do the most dimension traveling is at the very beginning where the plot wants you to visit the Blue Dragon Isle for a plot coupon that you don't even really need to begin with and that's back in your home dimension where you're from, that you could go back to at any time, and the place you had no real reason to leave again aside from helping some random stripper steal a juxtaposition from a catman.

[Dice]

You're actually stepping through time and dimensions and not for some silly reason like you've lost a fixed game and now must become a cat (through a lengthy and involved process) to unfix the game so that you can win a bet so that you can go to the bowels of the ship so that you can talk to an old man so that you can stage a rock opera so that you can wake a dragon and get one of six plot macguffins needed so that you can resume traveling between dimensions....

God it's sad when you write it out like that...  I like everything about CC but that ^
Like you said, and I giggled at this, the game has you earning "plot coupons" to move on.  Only some points matter, and one BIG SPLOTCH OF A FUCKING DOT is the big key at the end to the "connect-the-dots" story the game is.

That, and I hated the Deus Ex Machina it throws at you.... a fucking joke-looking alien's space ship even advances the story.  I remember hating that, which led me to question the plot anything beyond the main part of it (the parts the matter... which were few and far between). 

... which reminds me, how exactly would you say CT's story progressed?  That one is almost as tricky at times.

[MeshGearFox]

That, and I hated the Deus Ex Machina it throws at you.... a fucking joke-looking alien's space ship even advances the story.

Chrono Trigger has you going back in time using a literal deus ex machina and replacing Crono with a carnival doll so that his heroic sacrifice never really happens.

I'm not saying CC's story wasn't dumb I'm just saying CT's wasn't any LESS dumb.

[Vanguard]

I think the differnece is that CT makes it charmingly dumb, whereas CC is just retarded.

[Aeolus]

Also CT's plot didn't hinge on a massive a self inflicted 30 Xanatos Pileup involving creating a whole archipelago and two different civilizations from two different ends of the timeline then throwing them together in two separate timelines so that the proper material needed to create a seventh element could appear as well as taking a--Welp. Even I can't remember all the specifics that went into that clusterfuck of an ending but sufficed to say it was the most horribly convoluted and circumstance dependent gambits of all time that involved creating and destroying at least two civilizations, and all for the sake of rescuing a single girl.