The NEW Game Journal

[Yggdrasil]

Thanks to the 8-4 Play podcast I got addicted to listening K.K. Slider songs from Animal Crossing again.

K.K. Crusin'
Surfin' K.K.

Ah well. :)

[Kevadu]

It looks like Project Diva f will likely be the first game I ever platinum.  Wonder what that says about me?  Or maybe it just says it's an easy platinum, because usually there's some bullshit requirement and I just can't be bothered (RPGs are the worst trophy-wise since it just takes so damn long...).  Still, I have put a lot of hours into the game.

Anyway, I only have two trophies left to get:
1.  There's a trophy for uploading an edit data to Sega's servers.  Technically I could get this right now as I did make one, only it's an unplayable piece of junk.  But the trophy is just for uploading something, quality isn't measured.  Still I'd rather wait until I had something less embarrassing.

2.  The other trophy I need is kind of annoying.  The game displays artwork during loading screens and there's a trophy for collecting them all.  But what you get is totally random so there are lots and lots of repeats.  I have like 92% but who knows how long the last 8% will take.  There's no real strategy involved here, just persistence...

[Monsoon]

The more I play Rogue Galaxy, the more comparisons to Final Fantasy XII I find.  Action battle system, similar types of environments, lots and lots of loot, etc.  I think that Rogue Galaxy has more interesting and distinctive characters; more constrictive, less interesting stages; and a fun battle system that would've been better with something like FF XII's gambits.  FF XII has more skill selection, but RG's make the characters more unique and both games have totally wacky skill-learning systems.  RG's items and loot system (weapon fusion, revelation flow, factory, et al.) is SO MUCH BETTER than FF XII's rare drops and Bazaar items. 

Bottom line - Rogue Galaxy is totally fun and I'm going to see it through to the end.  Working through the Gladius Towers, going for the third Key Piece. 

[Mickeymac92]

I personally tried to go back to Rogue Galaxy recently, and had a lot of trouble getting into it. You're right that Gambits would've made the gameplay better. The AI is rediculously stupid at times. There's also challenges that appear randomly, but they just aren't worth doing on your first time on a planet. The general combat, though, is rather annoying, IMO. You're attacks are limited in number and of course there's that weird guage thing that drains every time you attack, I guess it's a nice idea, so you don't just mash your way through every fight, but it does make battles longer than necessary, and I found that they quickly became tiresome. Which wouldn't be a problem if you didn't need to engage in lots of battles to level up your equipment so you can use them in the fusion process.

Of course, overall, it still feels like a good mix between the good ideas Star Ocean 3 and FFXII had, it's just that it didn't quite take all of them as far as they could've gone.

[Kevadu]

The more I play Rogue Galaxy, the more comparisons to Final Fantasy XII I find.  Action battle system

FFXII didn't have an action battle system...

[Monsoon]

The more I play Rogue Galaxy, the more comparisons to Final Fantasy XII I find.  Action battle system

FFXII didn't have an action battle system...

hiu aren't wrong, but FF XII and RG really feel similar in little ways like character movement. I still contend that the two games have several mostly-superficial similarities.

[MeshGearFox]

more constrictive, less interesting stages;

I found that FFXII and RG's areas were equally huge and empty.

[Monsoon]

Totally disagree. RG has way more dungeon corridors and FFXII has more open areas. I'm one of those Monstrr Hunter guys, so I like open areas for combat and thought FFXII's open battlefields were pretty nice most of the time.

[Kevadu]

FFXII had some amazing dungeons.  Probably my favorite of any FF game.  They just weren't until the second half of the game...

They early stuff was pretty dull.

[Yoda]

Played some BL2 for a nice amount of time today. I love my Siren :)

When we play we usually only have 3. Today a 4th joined us and it's so much better. Granted we were all level 24+ and he was level 9... but the rare loot increased dramatically. He also leveled up to 15 by the time we were done haha

[Aeolus]

FFXII had some amazing dungeons.  Probably my favorite of any FF game.  They just weren't until the second half of the game...

They early stuff was pretty dull.

They also had nothing in them but the occasional random boss fight or hunt, and some of those later dungeons were a royal pain to get into and out of for non-plot based reasons (motherfucking Crystal Valley).

As for differences, even without playing RG I already know that as a Level 5 game FFXII's Ashe and Fran were both treated far better than pretty much every female in that game combined, because HOLY SHIT, Level 5 is bad at recognizing that humanity is a bi-gendered species.

[Yoda]

Any of you 'Fanners give the Silent Hill HD collection a go?

I've got a real taste for horror/creepy games.

[Yggdrasil]

That HD Collection is kind of a mess. The games are still great I'm pretty sure about that, but if you wanna play SH2 and 3 is honestly better trying to get the PS2 or PC versions of those titles.

Oh and I think that the patches they released for the game(s) don't do anything. So... yeah.

[Yoda]

You rule, my friend. Anytime I have a random gaming question you're the first and best to answer. Where the hell do you live? Chile? If ever in Chicago I invite you for merriment.

In a related note:
-Akanbe- is also invited but I'm going to harvest his organs for the black market.

Also, that's a well done review. Subscribe'd

[Lard]

That HD Collection is kind of a mess. The games are still great I'm pretty sure about that, but if you wanna play SH2 and 3 is honestly better trying to get the PS2 or PC versions of those titles.

Oh and I think that the patches they released for the game(s) don't do anything. So... yeah.

They patched the PS3 version but not the 360 version - I don't know why.

I hear the patches make the PS3 version manageable but it's still not great.

Right at this moment, I am being attacked by a mermaid that drops down from the ceiling and vomits on me.