The NEW Game Journal

[Mickeymac92]

Dragon Warrior I. Mopped up Gavin's grave and now I have to find some other place to explore. Went further down south, but apparently the monsters there are really kicking my ass.

Have you gone east yet? My biggest mistake with Dragon Warrior the first time I played it was focusing on the west side when I should've gone east.

[MeshGearFox]

Ys IV: MotS - Inadvertently grinded on bees till I got enough money to go buy new armor. Realized that the dungeon had armor in it already and that this was the wrong approach. Whoops. Oh well, making good progress in the ice dungeon now.

Felghana - Holy shit the dragon boss is pretty. Seems easier -- got it down to half its HP on my first go and I wasn't even being that careful. Also got the boost mode expansion boost thingy.

Anyway, since I want to pace myself on Felghana a bit, thinking of playing Sakura Wars or Growlanser Generations a bit. Probably G2, since I never really gave that a good shake (and SW was more of a "I never see this anywhere, better buy it for the fuck of it" thing).

Although all this Dragon Warrior talk's got me hankerin' for that a little. Y'ALL!

[Monsoon]

I was so glad when I played through DW I through III on my GBC a few years ago.  I had only finished III before, but playing them all back to back was really fulfilling, if frustrating at times. 

So... I'm still playing my NG+ of Persona 4.  With a little Persona 4 Arena online on the side.  It's been a Persona kind of year. 

[SonicDeathMonkey]

Just got back from visiting my parents, haven't played any kind of videogame in over a week.
But I borrowed Final Fantasy Tactics from a friend back home... playing this has been a very long time coming....
Hopefully gonna get into it tonight after I get home from work.
My roommate bought FFXIII yesterday, as well.. which I should play before he moves out in May, but I want to finish IX first.. my life is full of Final Fantasy at the moment..

[Jimmy]

I made it to the fifth area of Sly 4 last night. Looks like this is the last area. I also went back to the third area to track down the last few clue bottles that I'd missed. That took some work, but I finally managed to do it after I turned the music volume all the way down. There was one bottle that I wouldn't have found (and had probably passed under numerous times) had I not.

Loved the fourth area almost as much as the second, and I actually got angry with the boss. No one should mess with Bentley like that!

One thing that I've always found hit or miss with the Sly games are the mini-games you have to deal with. Some of them are a lot of fun, and other are just a pain in the neck. I really hate music/rhythm games, and so I've been pretty irritated at certain points. But I also loved the boxing match, the sumo wrestling, the penguin home run derby, and a lot of the others that I'm forgetting.

[Draak]

New Vegas - I somehow pissed off the Legion and now they keep sending assassins after me. One of the encounters (the "you've been marked for death") was extremely hard. Two guys were in centurion armor and took forever to kill, even throwing grenades/dynamite. It was a bit too much for my level 9 character. Other than that, still loving the game. Just wish these annoying freaks would quit ambushing me everywhere.

[MeshGearFox]

Ys 4: MotS - Got the sapphire in the ice cave, then headed back to town to get another herb. I like how grinding works in this game -- you always make forward progress, and the leveling just kind of happens when you inevitably have to backtrack a bit. It feels really... organic? Maybe that's why the grinding in DW1 and Phantasy Star 1 never bothered me.

Growlanser 2 - Played for like two hours. Got Hans and Chalone in my party, so... really way at the beginning. I should read up a summary of the first game. I saw that there's translated scripts around but that'd be... sloggy and probably incoherent without the game to go with.

Also how did Growlanser 1 play differently? Some fanpage indicated that G2 was more of a tactical RPG compared to G1. Except I thought G1 WAS a tactical RPG?

[Yoda]

yikes....20 missions into an Ironman playthrough I lost my whole squad. Ohhhh Xcom

:(

[Aeolus]

yikes....20 missions into an Ironman playthrough I lost my whole squad. Ohhhh Xcom

:(

You should've kept some Captains or above on back up.

[Bytor]

New Vegas - I somehow pissed off the Legion and now they keep sending assassins after me. One of the encounters (the "you've been marked for death") was extremely hard. Two guys were in centurion armor and took forever to kill, even throwing grenades/dynamite. It was a bit too much for my level 9 character. Other than that, still loving the game. Just wish these annoying freaks would quit ambushing me everywhere.

That is almost a game breaker! I swear I spent hours trying to escape those damn lunatics only to constantly have them pop up in places where I had no cover and had to run like a little bitch and pray. And then I became stronger...and I hunted those assholes down one by one! The day I destroyed them was one of my happiest achievements in the game!

[Lard]

Mass Effect 1 on the PS3 is a janky piece of shit.

[MeshGearFox]

New Vegas - I somehow pissed off the Legion and now they keep sending assassins after me. One of the encounters (the "you've been marked for death") was extremely hard. Two guys were in centurion armor and took forever to kill, even throwing grenades/dynamite. It was a bit too much for my level 9 character. Other than that, still loving the game. Just wish these annoying freaks would quit ambushing me everywhere.

That is almost a game breaker! I swear I spent hours trying to escape those damn lunatics only to constantly have them pop up in places where I had no cover and had to run like a little bitch and pray. And then I became stronger...and I hunted those assholes down one by one! The day I destroyed them was one of my happiest achievements in the game!

This is where having some companions helps.

Oh also I really recommend playing NV on the hardest difficulty setting, 'cause it activates all this survival stuff that really /adds/ to the game without getting obnoxious.

---edit---

Growlanser 2 - Went to the magic academy for the first time. Probably should've gone to Hans' home village first. Wups.

MotS - Got to the Earth Temple. Second boss was REALLY easy.

--- edit ---

Growlanser 2 - At the battle where you have to escape without killing any more than four Rolandian soldiers. Unfortunately, my party's current skill set renders this mission basically impossible, and I saved at the start of it, so I can't go back and grind until everyone has Dash. Not that I'd be interested in doing that anyway.

I have a rough idea as to what I might try next but if that doesn't work I'm pretty done with this.

---edit2---

Idea ended up working and the fight was trivial with it. Still, felt like I was exploiting quirks of the AI more than I was using actual strategy, and I really feel like it's not really that clear on how to build your characters. I'm just aiming for the cheapest skills first.

[D-Rider]

Due to some well-timed free time, I beat Bioshock Infinite!  Ending spoilers!:

Code:

I was waiting for the surprise twist, man.  Just waiting for it to happen so I could say "A-ha!"  Wasn't expecting the big twist to come in the literal final scene. :P

I'm very tempted to go back and see what difference (if any) that choice of pendant makes, but I think I'll let it sit for a while before I do.

[MeshGearFox]

Copy of Dawn of Ys came early. Gonna hold off till May or so to play it tho.

[Blace]

40 hours into FFXIII now. I feel like I am very close to the end of the story, which started out intriguing, but has slowly burnt out I feel. I think about half way through when the characters realized what was happening was when it stopped being interesting for me. I'm still enjoying it, especially after hitting Pulse where you finally get a little freedom. It's lower tier Final Fantasy for sure, but I still think it's pretty decent if unspectacular compared to better entries. I'll probably pony up and buy XIII-2 when I finish it.