The NEW Game Journal

[ultra7k]

Just beat Tales of Graces f last night, clocked in at 80 hours 26 minutes.

Includes main story line, 80% of the side quests and the future arc.
Did not do Zhonecage, and I have no intention of doing that I think.
Very satisfied with the game, even though I am leaving it with some unfinished content (feels to grindy for my liking)

You can probably take off about 5-6 hours due to idle time, but oh man there's just so much content to this game.

Next up, I will try to finish Trails in the Sky, currently at 23 hours and just started Chapter 3. Then I'll probably pick up the Last of Us this weekend.

[Klyde Chroma]

 I have to chime in with the "I am bad at Street Fighter" crew; so am I.

Sign me up to the club... fighting games in general are not my forte. Although I erroneously get sucked into to trying them out a few times a year only to frustrate myself to no end.

Atelier Ayesha- I am addicted to crafting to the point where it has taken precedence over advancing the story for me. The ease with which you can finish little tasks and goals makes this title feel like every sit-down with it is a highly rewarding for me. Loving it.

I will however be animating my "retro gaming weekend" routine starting this week. Deliberating between "Mother 3" and "Dragon Quest 6". I have no experience with either. The draw of Mother 3 for me is the fact that I loved earthbound. Dragon Quest 6, on the other hand, would be my first experience with the dragon quest franchise (something I've been meaning to get to for years). Leaning toward Dragon Quest right now on account of being in the mood for some classic Akira Toriyama crafted characters and whatnot.

[MeshGearFox]

Tried playing Morrowind and it's even worse than I remember. Somehow I keep forgetting about the overzealous collision detection, the bad map geometry that that's really easy to get stuck on, how short the jumps are, the slow movement speed, the hugeness of all the areas in the game which really compounds the slow movement speed... just the act of moving in the game is deeply unpleasant. I can't think of any other games I've managed to get stuck on the map object so frequently.

How many hours did I spend on this when I was younger?

--- edit ---

Lands of Lore 2- Played for like two hours and didn't get caught on the level geometry or anything!

[Monsoon]

Playing more Tactics Ogre Knight of Lodis.  Currently iI'm at a map called Ostorea Castle, which has two consecutive encounters that can't share units. Basically, you ought to have 16 characters around level 20 to challenge the first two stages (eight for each one). I have 13 characters TOTAL, and zero of them are at level 20. Only nine of them are above level 12, with most of those nine in the level 17-19 range. I have some character creation and level grinding to do. Gonna get on that.

[Starmongoose]

Playing more Tactics Ogre Knight of Lodis.  Currently iI'm at a map called Ostorea Castle, which has two consecutive encounters that can't share units. Basically, you ought to have 16 characters around level 20 to challenge the first two stages (eight for each one). I have 13 characters TOTAL, and zero of them are at level 20. Only nine of them are above level 12, with most of those nine in the level 17-19 range. I have some character creation and level grinding to do. Gonna get on that.

You're making me want to give that game another chance. I remember playing it once but losing track after a couple of levels, I think I found another game to play, I can't remember which.

[Monsoon]

Knight of Lodis is one of the best approximations of Final Fantasy Tactics without playing Final Fantasy Tactics.  I already like it loads better than FFTA.  I might dive right into Let Us Cling Together after I finish. 

[Lard]

Playing FF9 for a couple of hours each night before I go to bed. Oeilvert is a real slog. I keep getting turned around and have no idea where to go.

[Darilon]

Tried playing Morrowind and it's even worse than I remember. Somehow I keep forgetting about the overzealous collision detection, the bad map geometry that that's really easy to get stuck on, how short the jumps are, the slow movement speed, the hugeness of all the areas in the game which really compounds the slow movement speed... just the act of moving in the game is deeply unpleasant. I can't think of any other games I've managed to get stuck on the map object so frequently.

How many hours did I spend on this when I was younger?

I would say the geometry issue is more of a Bethesda thing than a purely Morrowind one, although it does suffer a lot from from it. I didn't really have those issues myself. My problems were more easily solved with the aid of mods. Things such as the horrible economy system that plagues every elder scrolls and delaying the Dark Brotherhood attack. I delay it more to prevent me getting some of the best armour in the first town rather than for difficulty reasons though. Despite it's flaws I still love the game though.

---

Playing along with my unarmoured, unarmed healer in Morrowind. After hitting a decent hand to hand level, fighting lost its tediousness and became quite fun. A lot more strategy is needed than usual. Hand to Hand is not as powerful so far as it was in Skyrim but it seems more useful than it was in Oblivion at least. I was surprised at how strong it was in the early game of Skyrim. It does go from more powerful than most other early game weapons to falling behind mid to late level weapons though.

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Finished Fallout 3. I thought the ending was pretty lame. The pacing seemed really off after the G.E.C.K quest.

[Klutz64]

Playing FF9 for a couple of hours each night before I go to bed. Oeilvert is a real slog. I keep getting turned around and have no idea where to go.

The dungeons in that game were really the only problem I have with it.

Every time I replay that game and realize it means going through the Desert Palace again, I die a little inside.

[MeshGearFox]

Oooh kay. More explorations with Street Fighter 4.

Pressing down and back at the same time and releasing it is resulting in a four direction command string. Thaaaaaat's probably not supposed to happen.

[Dice]

Playing FF9 for a couple of hours each night before I go to bed. Oeilvert is a real slog. I keep getting turned around and have no idea where to go.

The dungeons in that game were really the only problem I have with it.

Every time I replay that game and realize it means going through the Desert Palace again, I die a little inside.

Yeah I find the dungeons more confusing than long (of course made super-fucking-tedious by random battles, which, btw, should be flat-out BANNED by this point in gaming).

Eternal Sonata  ~Beaten!!

SPOILERS
= While the story is an absolute garbage mess, the world, the characters, and certainly the theme of dreams/reality and life/death still really stuck with me
= Polka's end game, no, her whole deal makes like..... no, no, no sense; and whatever explanation there is would be extremely loose and so "magically charged" that I doubt I'd be able to take much from it.
= That battle system.  VERY well done, particularly the character balance, it's nearly perfect to make each character ideal in their own way.
= Anyone else get a King Valentine (à la Odin Sphere) from Count Waltz??  Insofar both seem to have desired destruction so much that it eliminated THEMSELVES in the process.
= Anyone wanna clarify?  I loved what "I" took from the ending and thought it was a clever idea.  So the time loop: If you can't take out the final boss, it confirms that the world IS a dream because he was able to win and confirm his strength and his bounds (how this restarts the cycle is...somewhat ambiguous to me, does anything), but him losing shows their strength to take on the "dreamer"?
= I felt the idea of Agogo's was played out to be a bigger deal than it was....
= The ending is extremely dramatic and the end-world is quite beautiful, nuanced....but unfortunately terribly explained!  How cruel, the Elegy of the Moon, the dunes, the dungeons and everything are really lovely places (and so are the Coda Ruins, but similarly, without a context), and the place seems to play a vital role.... but it's just a sort of dimensional shift to the real [dream] world that we hop into just as quickly as it's hopped out of.
= Hands down one of the prettiest RPGs I've ever played, even the anime-turned-3D was well done and well balanced (say compared to Star Ocean's uncanny human-anime people or the Tales Series' usually less visually impressive 3D).
= Fuck the haters, Sakuraba shined with this OST; both of Waltz's battle themes sent tingles to my butt.
And finally...
= Best fucking end credits ever; anime Chopin hammering on a piano.

I might to Encore, see how well that goes.. but FIRST, Mysterious Unison (and going back to The Last of Us).

[Haven]

Playing FF9 for a couple of hours each night before I go to bed. Oeilvert is a real slog. I keep getting turned around and have no idea where to go.

The dungeons in that game were really the only problem I have with it.

Every time I replay that game and realize it means going through the Desert Palace again, I die a little inside.

 I am about to fire up FF6 and finish it off for the 9th time. That is the plan at least. I have everyone's primary stat at 100 or more, so all casters do 9999 and melee isn't that far behind.  Everyone knows every spell. All side quests are done as well. I think that earns me a gold coin!
 
 I also caved in and bought FF9 as my next retro game. I remember so much more about my times with 7 and 8. The other posts made me want to scope it out again.  I was talking to a buddy of mine at work  and he told me it took him almost a full 50 hour playthrough to realize Zidane was male. Strange.

[Draak]

I will however be animating my "retro gaming weekend" routine starting this week. Deliberating between "Mother 3" and "Dragon Quest 6". I have no experience with either. The draw of Mother 3 for me is the fact that I loved earthbound. Dragon Quest 6, on the other hand, would be my first experience with the dragon quest franchise (something I've been meaning to get to for years). Leaning toward Dragon Quest right now on account of being in the mood for some classic Akira Toriyama crafted characters and whatnot.

You can't go wrong with either of them. Dragon Quest 6 is a solid game, even more so if you enjoy job systems. If you like it enough, check out Dragon Quest 5.

New Vegas - Dead Money completed. Despite the criticisms, I enjoyed it a lot. The main mechanic wasn't as terrible as people made out to be; it only got annoying during the final area because there were radios everywhere and I had trouble finding their locations. Otherwise, the intriguing story and charismatic companions, some even more interesting than those in the main campaign, made up for any possible failings gameplay-wise. Not sure if I should tackle Odd World next or, you know, enter The Strip.

[MeshGearFox]

HEY GUYS PSX GAMES ARE NOT RETRO QUIT MAKING ME FEEL OLD.

Fable - Played for like an hour or twenty minutes or however it long it takes to get past the intro village. This is easily one of the ugliest games I have ever played. I don't know it feels sort of Amalurish except Amalur is amazing and this just murdering my eyes with excessive bloom and washed out colors.

Baroque - At level -600 in the Neuro Tower. Set off some event with a girl that hates me. Got robbed by seahorse robots.

I should probably get back to Shenmue but I sort of want to get back to that Kurt run I was doing in Unlimited Saga. Hm hm hm.

[Aeolus]

The most recent PSX game was released over a decade ago. People were calling the SuperNES retro long before it hit that point (although that's more due to the fact that the SuperNES still had games coming out for it until the 00's). Suck it up you old geezer.

Playing more Tactics Ogre Knight of Lodis.  Currently iI'm at a map called Ostorea Castle, which has two consecutive encounters that can't share units. Basically, you ought to have 16 characters around level 20 to challenge the first two stages (eight for each one). I have 13 characters TOTAL, and zero of them are at level 20. Only nine of them are above level 12, with most of those nine in the level 17-19 range. I have some character creation and level grinding to do. Gonna get on that.

If I remember correctly, after a point, I just said fuck it and went full in on the uniques instead of trying to keep generics around (aside from maybe a caster or two).

Hit a similar problem in LUCT where I just got tired of hitting up training after every fight when to close the ensuing level gap since there isn't enough experience during story fights to level even 5 people up once and yet you're expected to bring in 10 people at the recommended level (at least this does become less of a thing as time goes on but PSX issues then become the major problem yet again).


Anyways, chapter 8 of PXZ and I've gotten Ryu/Ken back along with probably one of the few if only characters in the game whom I have no fucking clue about going into this. Still more running around, getting more recruits, and getting into fights at literally every turn.