Video Games
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Count Arioch the 28th
- King
- Posts: 6172
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
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Lago PARANOIA
- Invincible Overlord
- Posts: 10555
- Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:00 am
I never really cared much for the first Kingdom Hearts. It's not a bad game, it's just that they never make the most of what they have and it never really builds up to anything special.
The third game in the series (Kingdom Hearts II) is much superior, though you lose a portion of the story if you skip over Chain of Memories. I care for Chain of Memories even less, since that game is mostly a retread of the first game with plot elements deconstructed from another point of view. It sounds more interesting than it really is.
Anyway, I like KH2 much more for several reasons.
1) More character interaction. Kingdom Hearts 1 feels kind of bleak and empty, actually, especially once you get past traverse Town. The supporting cast is a lot larger and more relevant than in KH2; because of KH's cosmology they're not as integrated into the plot as they could have been but for their individual vignettes they're used a lot more.
2) More dynamic combat. Not that the first one is slow, but in the second one Sora moves like a freaking ninja especially towards the end of the game. It is seriously like going from Super Mario World to Super Mario 64. Unlike KH1, Sora's abilities also fit together more smoothly so there is a very stable curve of Sora going from 'capable sword-based platform hero' to 'flying whirlwind of death and violence'.
3) They took out a ton of the more annoying platforming elements in KH1. This is a plus for me but a lot of people feel this is bad and I am sympathetic to that complaint. For more on that, read complaint A.
4) A lot more minigames. However, the minigames use the basic combat engine so they're nowhere near as annoying as they were in the first game. In fact, I think the minigames are overall really fun, especially the ones in Agrabah and Halloween Town.
5) One-Eyed Pete is a persistent villain. Now I'm a fan of the oafish, belligerent, but mostly-harmless villain archetype so this was a big plus for me. I think he's much better than the other group of villains that you fight, who frankly don't have much of a personality with perhaps two exceptions. But a lot of people think that those guys are badass and smexy so who knows. Maybe you'll like them.
6) The plot and tone is overall a degree sillier than in the first game. KH1 is actually rather grim once you think about it; KH2 doesn't take itself very seriously except for a couple of melodramatic moments near the end.
7) Battles are a lot more cinematic than in the first game. Not like the boring Final Fantasy 7 kind where cutscenes interrupt the action, but there's a lot more crazy shit going on. If you're not sold by the fights in Beast's Castle and in the Olympic Colosseum (especially since you liked the ones in KH1) I'll be forced to conclude that you have no soul.
8) The Gummi-ship system is just flat-out awesome in this game. It's a lot more customizable than it was in the first and there is also a lot more variety in the action sequences. There are also a lot more stages, too. The Gummi-ship system is good enough that this game would be a recommended purchase if just for that even if the rest of the game was Chrono Cross.
Well, maybe not that good. How about if the rest of the game was Daikatana?
Of course, if you don't want to do the Gummi system the game makes it painless, since the default ships are more than powerful enough to cruise through the mandatory levels.
The game is not without its complaints, though:
A) Probably the biggest one is that when you get down to it, the game is pretty much a button-masher. Offense is very superior to defense and it's not hard to get to a point where you attack so blindingly fast that you don't really fear a lot from enemies.
I recommend playing the game on Expert even if you only have a tiny bit of experience playing action games. It actually makes the bosses and regular enemies a little threatening, as opposed to the curbstomp you'll have on Normal and Easy.
B) The first part of the game is pretty excruciating. There's not much way around it. My suggestion is to just endure the first 45 minutes; that's when things really pick up. Some people really like it, though. I think it's okay but it doesn't really lead anywhere except for a genuinely sad ending. There are, however, a couple of REALLY cool fights in the prologue that help make up for it.
C) A lot of battles have a massive difficulty spike, especially if you're playing on expert. If you're min-maxxing your characters you can get through it. Most of the battles fortunately are avoidable with a couple of exceptions. The final set of battles, while IMO the best ones in the game in terms of action and awesomeness, are difficult because there are a LOT of them and you don't get an opportunity to replenish items.
D) If you don't know some tricks, especially the Infinite Drive one, grinding is a huge pain in the butt. I'm just going to tell you the Infinite Drive trick right now because it'll save you a lot of time:
When you're in your Super Mode, right before your meter runs out exit the world and re-enter it. Your meter will be replenished. This doesn't work for boss fights or normal stage progression, which is good, because it would've sucked out the challenge of an already easy game. There, I just saved you about five hours of grinding.
E) If you haven't played Chain of Memories, certain parts of the game are just not going to make sense for you. But I recommend skipping CoM unless you're a diehard fan. In fact, it might just be better to do it altogether, because what happens to two characters between CoM and KH2 is awful enough to throw the controller at the screen. It's not a big deal if you don't know them but it's infuriating if you do.
F) Atlantica. Dear God in heaven, Atlantica. THANKFULLY, this part of the game is entirely skippable, unlike in KH1! But if you want 100% completion, you have to go through this segment. Sometimes I hate my job.
Fortunately for people with even a mild amount of taste this entire segment can be completed with the mute button.
But really, I enjoy copious amounts of cheese in my videogames--for example, I like the idea of a 16-year old kid in ninja gear forming a strong friendship with Winnie the Pooh--but this section is too cheesy even for moi.
The third game in the series (Kingdom Hearts II) is much superior, though you lose a portion of the story if you skip over Chain of Memories. I care for Chain of Memories even less, since that game is mostly a retread of the first game with plot elements deconstructed from another point of view. It sounds more interesting than it really is.
Anyway, I like KH2 much more for several reasons.
1) More character interaction. Kingdom Hearts 1 feels kind of bleak and empty, actually, especially once you get past traverse Town. The supporting cast is a lot larger and more relevant than in KH2; because of KH's cosmology they're not as integrated into the plot as they could have been but for their individual vignettes they're used a lot more.
2) More dynamic combat. Not that the first one is slow, but in the second one Sora moves like a freaking ninja especially towards the end of the game. It is seriously like going from Super Mario World to Super Mario 64. Unlike KH1, Sora's abilities also fit together more smoothly so there is a very stable curve of Sora going from 'capable sword-based platform hero' to 'flying whirlwind of death and violence'.
3) They took out a ton of the more annoying platforming elements in KH1. This is a plus for me but a lot of people feel this is bad and I am sympathetic to that complaint. For more on that, read complaint A.
4) A lot more minigames. However, the minigames use the basic combat engine so they're nowhere near as annoying as they were in the first game. In fact, I think the minigames are overall really fun, especially the ones in Agrabah and Halloween Town.
5) One-Eyed Pete is a persistent villain. Now I'm a fan of the oafish, belligerent, but mostly-harmless villain archetype so this was a big plus for me. I think he's much better than the other group of villains that you fight, who frankly don't have much of a personality with perhaps two exceptions. But a lot of people think that those guys are badass and smexy so who knows. Maybe you'll like them.
6) The plot and tone is overall a degree sillier than in the first game. KH1 is actually rather grim once you think about it; KH2 doesn't take itself very seriously except for a couple of melodramatic moments near the end.
7) Battles are a lot more cinematic than in the first game. Not like the boring Final Fantasy 7 kind where cutscenes interrupt the action, but there's a lot more crazy shit going on. If you're not sold by the fights in Beast's Castle and in the Olympic Colosseum (especially since you liked the ones in KH1) I'll be forced to conclude that you have no soul.
8) The Gummi-ship system is just flat-out awesome in this game. It's a lot more customizable than it was in the first and there is also a lot more variety in the action sequences. There are also a lot more stages, too. The Gummi-ship system is good enough that this game would be a recommended purchase if just for that even if the rest of the game was Chrono Cross.
Well, maybe not that good. How about if the rest of the game was Daikatana?
Of course, if you don't want to do the Gummi system the game makes it painless, since the default ships are more than powerful enough to cruise through the mandatory levels.
The game is not without its complaints, though:
A) Probably the biggest one is that when you get down to it, the game is pretty much a button-masher. Offense is very superior to defense and it's not hard to get to a point where you attack so blindingly fast that you don't really fear a lot from enemies.
I recommend playing the game on Expert even if you only have a tiny bit of experience playing action games. It actually makes the bosses and regular enemies a little threatening, as opposed to the curbstomp you'll have on Normal and Easy.
B) The first part of the game is pretty excruciating. There's not much way around it. My suggestion is to just endure the first 45 minutes; that's when things really pick up. Some people really like it, though. I think it's okay but it doesn't really lead anywhere except for a genuinely sad ending. There are, however, a couple of REALLY cool fights in the prologue that help make up for it.
C) A lot of battles have a massive difficulty spike, especially if you're playing on expert. If you're min-maxxing your characters you can get through it. Most of the battles fortunately are avoidable with a couple of exceptions. The final set of battles, while IMO the best ones in the game in terms of action and awesomeness, are difficult because there are a LOT of them and you don't get an opportunity to replenish items.
D) If you don't know some tricks, especially the Infinite Drive one, grinding is a huge pain in the butt. I'm just going to tell you the Infinite Drive trick right now because it'll save you a lot of time:
When you're in your Super Mode, right before your meter runs out exit the world and re-enter it. Your meter will be replenished. This doesn't work for boss fights or normal stage progression, which is good, because it would've sucked out the challenge of an already easy game. There, I just saved you about five hours of grinding.
E) If you haven't played Chain of Memories, certain parts of the game are just not going to make sense for you. But I recommend skipping CoM unless you're a diehard fan. In fact, it might just be better to do it altogether, because what happens to two characters between CoM and KH2 is awful enough to throw the controller at the screen. It's not a big deal if you don't know them but it's infuriating if you do.
F) Atlantica. Dear God in heaven, Atlantica. THANKFULLY, this part of the game is entirely skippable, unlike in KH1! But if you want 100% completion, you have to go through this segment. Sometimes I hate my job.
Fortunately for people with even a mild amount of taste this entire segment can be completed with the mute button.
But really, I enjoy copious amounts of cheese in my videogames--for example, I like the idea of a 16-year old kid in ninja gear forming a strong friendship with Winnie the Pooh--but this section is too cheesy even for moi.
Last edited by Lago PARANOIA on Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Josh Kablack wrote:Your freedom to make rulings up on the fly is in direct conflict with my freedom to interact with an internally consistent narrative. Your freedom to run/play a game without needing to understand a complex rule system is in direct conflict with my freedom to play a character whose abilities and flaws function as I intended within that ruleset. Your freedom to add and change rules in the middle of the game is in direct conflict with my ability to understand that rules system before I decided whether or not to join your game.
In short, your entire post is dismissive of not merely my intelligence, but my agency. And I don't mean agency as a player within one of your games, I mean my agency as a person. You do not want me to be informed when I make the fundamental decisions of deciding whether to join your game or buying your rules system.
It's not the shoes, it's just the complete re-tread of characters to make a game plot which seems really trite and pointless. The characters just seem so lifeless to me.
The preview I saw of the new Mickey game seemed even worse. Like American McGee does Mickey Mouse. I really, really couldn't care less.
-Crissa
The preview I saw of the new Mickey game seemed even worse. Like American McGee does Mickey Mouse. I really, really couldn't care less.
-Crissa
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NativeJovian
- Journeyman
- Posts: 128
- Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 1:34 am
I liked KH1 better than KH2, on the whole.
There were some minor issues with the actual gameplay (as Lago mentioned, it's so fast paced that there's really nothing to do other than smash the X button (mixed in occasionally with triangle to get the reaction commands). Hell, I never even really used any spells beyond the occasional cure. I don't think I used items once during battle in the entire game. But overall it was fun, and watching Sora flip out like a ninja was awesome. Hacking through zillions of enemies was fun (when they actually let you fight instead of having to watch a 10 second cutscene every time you enter the next map). The 1,000 heartless battle was awesome.
But no, my biggest complaint was about the plot. It probably makes me nerdy (but, what the hell? we're on a pen and paper RPG forum -- I think that's a given) but I actually pay attention to shit like that in games I play. And KH2's was terrible. The entire Nobody thing was retarded. The Nobody-people like Axel and Xeonart (or however you spell that fucker's name) were especially retarded. The fact that they got very little screen time and virtually zero characterization doubleplus especially retarded.
The sad thing is, though, that even they were better than the rest of the game. The Disnificated parts. In KH1 they made something of an attempt to switch things up a bit -- the fact that Sora was in the world changed things around. In KH2, they literally just ran you through the cliff notes' version of the movies' plot, which was damn near unbearable. Pete as a reoccuring villain was useless -- he never did anything but show up, display his stupidity, maybe summon some heartless (which you'd been fighting anyway), and then run away. They did absolutely nothing with the return of Maleficent, which was a complete waste.
Short version: KH2 was fun to play, but only when they shut up and let you smash on the X button until everything was dead. Pretty much every time anyone was on screen, I wanted them to shut up so I could go back to killing things. Of course, being the masochist that I am, I couldn't bring myself to skip the cutscenes entirely. Maybe it was just in vain hope that the suck would stop at some point.
Edit -- The Winnie the Pooh parts were awesome, though. I have to say that much. Because they actually DID switch things up other than "and Sora was there too". And because Winnie the Pooh is awesome.
There were some minor issues with the actual gameplay (as Lago mentioned, it's so fast paced that there's really nothing to do other than smash the X button (mixed in occasionally with triangle to get the reaction commands). Hell, I never even really used any spells beyond the occasional cure. I don't think I used items once during battle in the entire game. But overall it was fun, and watching Sora flip out like a ninja was awesome. Hacking through zillions of enemies was fun (when they actually let you fight instead of having to watch a 10 second cutscene every time you enter the next map). The 1,000 heartless battle was awesome.
But no, my biggest complaint was about the plot. It probably makes me nerdy (but, what the hell? we're on a pen and paper RPG forum -- I think that's a given) but I actually pay attention to shit like that in games I play. And KH2's was terrible. The entire Nobody thing was retarded. The Nobody-people like Axel and Xeonart (or however you spell that fucker's name) were especially retarded. The fact that they got very little screen time and virtually zero characterization doubleplus especially retarded.
The sad thing is, though, that even they were better than the rest of the game. The Disnificated parts. In KH1 they made something of an attempt to switch things up a bit -- the fact that Sora was in the world changed things around. In KH2, they literally just ran you through the cliff notes' version of the movies' plot, which was damn near unbearable. Pete as a reoccuring villain was useless -- he never did anything but show up, display his stupidity, maybe summon some heartless (which you'd been fighting anyway), and then run away. They did absolutely nothing with the return of Maleficent, which was a complete waste.
Short version: KH2 was fun to play, but only when they shut up and let you smash on the X button until everything was dead. Pretty much every time anyone was on screen, I wanted them to shut up so I could go back to killing things. Of course, being the masochist that I am, I couldn't bring myself to skip the cutscenes entirely. Maybe it was just in vain hope that the suck would stop at some point.
Edit -- The Winnie the Pooh parts were awesome, though. I have to say that much. Because they actually DID switch things up other than "and Sora was there too". And because Winnie the Pooh is awesome.
Last edited by NativeJovian on Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Lago PARANOIA
- Invincible Overlord
- Posts: 10555
- Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:00 am
Hey, I never accused the plot of Kingdom Hearts 2 of being good, just of being fun.
Though Kingdom Hearts 1 didn't have a story to speak of either. Aside from having some blatantly filler worlds like Monstro, Halloween Town, Neverland, and Olympic Colosseum, the plot never really goes anywhere. The first group of baddies in the game aren't threatening and the villain--befitting the post-16 bit era Final Fantasy tradition--shows up and doesn't ever do anything important.
Which wouldn't be so bad, but the first game is also awash in melodrama. Hearts! Never finding our friends! Chosen one! Destiny! Fulfilling childhood promises! People lost to the DARKNESS! Now KH2 also has its share of melodrama, but it doesn't overshadow the FUN of that game. Kingdom Hearts 1's plot is not fun. It's just overwrought in a bullshit soap opera way. The game treats a plot that should be blatantly fun--going through the Disney worlds and wrecking peoples' shit--and saps it of excitement with its angst.
Not to mention an extraordinarily bullshit ending that made the entire game meaningless. It's not the most bullshit ending I've ever seen, but it's pretty close. I'd rank it somewhere between Final Fantasy VIII and Super Mario Sunshine in stupid factor.
It's not all bad though because KH2 goes for a much more fun Big American Party kind of ending with blatant homoerotica. I much prefer it to the... whatever that was.
Though Kingdom Hearts 1 didn't have a story to speak of either. Aside from having some blatantly filler worlds like Monstro, Halloween Town, Neverland, and Olympic Colosseum, the plot never really goes anywhere. The first group of baddies in the game aren't threatening and the villain--befitting the post-16 bit era Final Fantasy tradition--shows up and doesn't ever do anything important.
Which wouldn't be so bad, but the first game is also awash in melodrama. Hearts! Never finding our friends! Chosen one! Destiny! Fulfilling childhood promises! People lost to the DARKNESS! Now KH2 also has its share of melodrama, but it doesn't overshadow the FUN of that game. Kingdom Hearts 1's plot is not fun. It's just overwrought in a bullshit soap opera way. The game treats a plot that should be blatantly fun--going through the Disney worlds and wrecking peoples' shit--and saps it of excitement with its angst.
Not to mention an extraordinarily bullshit ending that made the entire game meaningless. It's not the most bullshit ending I've ever seen, but it's pretty close. I'd rank it somewhere between Final Fantasy VIII and Super Mario Sunshine in stupid factor.
It's not all bad though because KH2 goes for a much more fun Big American Party kind of ending with blatant homoerotica. I much prefer it to the... whatever that was.
Last edited by Lago PARANOIA on Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Josh Kablack wrote:Your freedom to make rulings up on the fly is in direct conflict with my freedom to interact with an internally consistent narrative. Your freedom to run/play a game without needing to understand a complex rule system is in direct conflict with my freedom to play a character whose abilities and flaws function as I intended within that ruleset. Your freedom to add and change rules in the middle of the game is in direct conflict with my ability to understand that rules system before I decided whether or not to join your game.
In short, your entire post is dismissive of not merely my intelligence, but my agency. And I don't mean agency as a player within one of your games, I mean my agency as a person. You do not want me to be informed when I make the fundamental decisions of deciding whether to join your game or buying your rules system.
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Lago PARANOIA
- Invincible Overlord
- Posts: 10555
- Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:00 am
Or if that's hard to understand, let's compare the games to a game that also has two harebrained plots.
Final Fantasy VII. There are two plots to this game; the first one is that you're a band of ecoterrorists who constantly battles a ridiculous, amusingly evil corporation to save the planet. The other one is your standard 16-bit faire of a villain with a shady agenda traipsing around the planet in an attempt to become all-powerful.
They're both equally stupid. But the former is what makes the game fun. The second one is not. It might be more deep and meaningful but it makes the actual experience of it a chore.
Final Fantasy VII. There are two plots to this game; the first one is that you're a band of ecoterrorists who constantly battles a ridiculous, amusingly evil corporation to save the planet. The other one is your standard 16-bit faire of a villain with a shady agenda traipsing around the planet in an attempt to become all-powerful.
They're both equally stupid. But the former is what makes the game fun. The second one is not. It might be more deep and meaningful but it makes the actual experience of it a chore.
Josh Kablack wrote:Your freedom to make rulings up on the fly is in direct conflict with my freedom to interact with an internally consistent narrative. Your freedom to run/play a game without needing to understand a complex rule system is in direct conflict with my freedom to play a character whose abilities and flaws function as I intended within that ruleset. Your freedom to add and change rules in the middle of the game is in direct conflict with my ability to understand that rules system before I decided whether or not to join your game.
In short, your entire post is dismissive of not merely my intelligence, but my agency. And I don't mean agency as a player within one of your games, I mean my agency as a person. You do not want me to be informed when I make the fundamental decisions of deciding whether to join your game or buying your rules system.
In terms of combat mechanics, KH2 simply blows KH1 out of the water. You get a lot more interesting abilities. Your allies play better and their death is less important, leading to many fewer situations where you feel like they're dragging you down. The new MP rules are brilliant. The different specializations you select at the beginning of the game are all viable and all change your combat noticeably. As Lago says, Sora feels a lot more capable and effective, and can do a lot more things; when you press the attack button, he selects from his equipped attacks automatically based on relative position to the target, which actually gives some rather subtle control over what moves he uses and rarely leaves you swinging at air.
You'll also be pleased to note that you can have the game restock your items automatically at the end of every battle.
It's certainly not all perfect. The drive forms should all gain XP either like valor form or like the summons (or even--dare I say it--just always be level-appropriate automatically). A couple of abilities do more harm than good, IMO. The synthesis shop becomes useful about the time the game ends. But overall, it's very good.
You'll also be pleased to note that you can have the game restock your items automatically at the end of every battle.
It's certainly not all perfect. The drive forms should all gain XP either like valor form or like the summons (or even--dare I say it--just always be level-appropriate automatically). A couple of abilities do more harm than good, IMO. The synthesis shop becomes useful about the time the game ends. But overall, it's very good.
I found the easiest way was to mute the television and ignore everything but the button sequences.Lago PARANOIA wrote:F) Atlantica. Dear God in heaven, Atlantica. THANKFULLY, this part of the game is entirely skippable, unlike in KH1! But if you want 100% completion, you have to go through this segment. Sometimes I hate my job.
I feel like I should be in mourning or something.
My good Gamecube memory card blanked itself. So, my unlocked-all-characters file of Melee which I used for multiplayer matches, my Symphonia files, Sonic Adventure 2, Paper Mario: TTYD, four different Zeldas, Eternal Darkness...
Gone.
My good Gamecube memory card blanked itself. So, my unlocked-all-characters file of Melee which I used for multiplayer matches, my Symphonia files, Sonic Adventure 2, Paper Mario: TTYD, four different Zeldas, Eternal Darkness...
Gone.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Ganbare Gincun
- Duke
- Posts: 1022
- Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:42 am
I'm very sorry for your loss.Maxus wrote:I feel like I should be in mourning or something.
My good Gamecube memory card blanked itself. So, my unlocked-all-characters file of Melee which I used for multiplayer matches, my Symphonia files, Sonic Adventure 2, Paper Mario: TTYD, four different Zeldas, Eternal Darkness...
Gone.
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Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
- Posts: 8624
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
- Location: Oakland, CA
Ouch. Yeah, you've my sympathy. I hope you didn't have anything you'd yet to finish on there. Can you still record data? It's probably getting pretty hard to find new GCN memory cards by now, so if the card is unusable, you might want to pick up another if its still easily possible and affordable.
---------------
Listening to a surprisingly nice mix off of olremix.org ( http://olremix.org/remixes/517 ) convinced me to get started on the translated Mother 3 rom. It's good so far. You are pretty obviously on rails, but the experience is pretty entertaining. It would probably grate on me at least a bit without fast-forward and save-states though. There's a decent number of secrets you have to go out of your way to find, but everything I've found so far is a basic item or slightly-better piece of equipment. Starting chapter 2, 2-3 hours of play so far.
---------------
Listening to a surprisingly nice mix off of olremix.org ( http://olremix.org/remixes/517 ) convinced me to get started on the translated Mother 3 rom. It's good so far. You are pretty obviously on rails, but the experience is pretty entertaining. It would probably grate on me at least a bit without fast-forward and save-states though. There's a decent number of secrets you have to go out of your way to find, but everything I've found so far is a basic item or slightly-better piece of equipment. Starting chapter 2, 2-3 hours of play so far.
We're not hurting for memory cards around here, since we have Animal Crossing and Gamestop was offering a bunch of normal-sized cards for cheap.Avoraciopoctules wrote:Ouch. Yeah, you've my sympathy. I hope you didn't have anything you'd yet to finish on there. Can you still record data? It's probably getting pretty hard to find new GCN memory cards by now, so if the card is unusable, you might want to pick up another if its still easily possible and affordable.
But it was my card. I had 130-something emblems on SA2, I'd had quite a lot of things unlocked on quite a lot of games.
What irritates me though, is I found out when I was going to do a 4-player Melee with some cousins and found out that, woops, there's the secret characters and extra stages gone. Along with losing my Symphonia files. I'd played through that game several times, and had a ton of grade built up for new games.
Last edited by Maxus on Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Ouch. My sympathies.
My PS2 memory card died when I was in Sydney, and I had finished Makai Kingdom and was working on unlocking everything. I was also a good way into Atelier Iris, collecting all those recipes and helping the girls run their stores to get loads of customers.
Yeah, I only actually played the RPG aspect of it like a minigame to unlock more stuff for the actual minigames.
My PS2 memory card died when I was in Sydney, and I had finished Makai Kingdom and was working on unlocking everything. I was also a good way into Atelier Iris, collecting all those recipes and helping the girls run their stores to get loads of customers.
Yeah, I only actually played the RPG aspect of it like a minigame to unlock more stuff for the actual minigames.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
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Count Arioch the 28th
- King
- Posts: 6172
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
My thoughts on Bowser's Inside Story:
It is frustrating as fuck to play as Mario and Luigi. They're eggshell cannons to be sure. Every time I enter a new are with new enemies, I just die die die die die die die die reset because I've ran out of 1-up mushrooms die die die die die die die die finally have mastered the exact millifuckingsecond they want me to jump and avoid the attacks on the enemies.
I understand the concept of timed hits and am cool with them. But everything that hits you will take off half your life in one hit. I find that very frustrating. Bowser's sections are awesome, knocking bad guys around is a lot of fun.
It is frustrating as fuck to play as Mario and Luigi. They're eggshell cannons to be sure. Every time I enter a new are with new enemies, I just die die die die die die die die reset because I've ran out of 1-up mushrooms die die die die die die die die finally have mastered the exact millifuckingsecond they want me to jump and avoid the attacks on the enemies.
I understand the concept of timed hits and am cool with them. But everything that hits you will take off half your life in one hit. I find that very frustrating. Bowser's sections are awesome, knocking bad guys around is a lot of fun.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
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Lago PARANOIA
- Invincible Overlord
- Posts: 10555
- Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:00 am
Yeah, the Mario and Luigi sections are a spike in difficulty up from the easygoing sections of the other games. It's probably a reaction to the complaints of Partners in Time where people never really felt threatened by enemies because they were too easy.
You HAVE to master timed hits in this game or your ass is grass.
Things do get a bit easier once you build up a hit point cushion and also get your badges.
You HAVE to master timed hits in this game or your ass is grass.
Things do get a bit easier once you build up a hit point cushion and also get your badges.
Josh Kablack wrote:Your freedom to make rulings up on the fly is in direct conflict with my freedom to interact with an internally consistent narrative. Your freedom to run/play a game without needing to understand a complex rule system is in direct conflict with my freedom to play a character whose abilities and flaws function as I intended within that ruleset. Your freedom to add and change rules in the middle of the game is in direct conflict with my ability to understand that rules system before I decided whether or not to join your game.
In short, your entire post is dismissive of not merely my intelligence, but my agency. And I don't mean agency as a player within one of your games, I mean my agency as a person. You do not want me to be informed when I make the fundamental decisions of deciding whether to join your game or buying your rules system.
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Count Arioch the 28th
- King
- Posts: 6172
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
I'm just now getting my badges. Attacking's not a problem, I can hit excellent with pretty good accuracy. It's just having to relearn the dodges every new section, and the bros don't have Bowesr's huge 300+ hit points and 200+ defense to act as a learning buffer.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
See if you can find one of those cheating devices (CDs). I think Action Replay that came with a memory card let you copy saves over to a USB device. Gameshark might have a feature to copy to a USB as well. I don't recall which one I got for my PS2.Koumei wrote:Ouch. My sympathies.
My PS2 memory card died when I was in Sydney, and I had finished Makai Kingdom and was working on unlocking everything. I was also a good way into Atelier Iris, collecting all those recipes and helping the girls run their stores to get loads of customers.
Yeah, I only actually played the RPG aspect of it like a minigame to unlock more stuff for the actual minigames.
With the USB drives out there now, you really just need one memory card and copy everything over to the USB drive when you want to use it, and always have everything backed up.
Just don't trust any of those hacking programs to alter the save code on your PC, or you could lose your saved game.
Play the game, not the rules.
good read (Note to self Maxus sucks a barrel of cocks.)
Swordslinger wrote:Or fuck it... I'm just going to get weapon specialization in my cock and whip people to death with it. Given all the enemies are total pussies, it seems like the appropriate thing to do.
Lewis Black wrote:If the people of New Zealand want to be part of our world, I believe they should hop off their islands, and push 'em closer.
Pretty sure I died as Bowser more times than as Mario+Luigi (the status effects are brutal when you've only got 1 character). Though the Bowser deaths were mostly or all on boss fights, while the reverse was true for Mario+Luigi.Count_Arioch_the_28th wrote:I'm just now getting my badges. Attacking's not a problem, I can hit excellent with pretty good accuracy. It's just having to relearn the dodges every new section, and the bros don't have Bowesr's huge 300+ hit points and 200+ defense to act as a learning buffer.
If it helps, until you run into enemies that attack both bros in rapid succession, you can just always press A+B at the same time, instead of trying to figure out which one of them is being targeted. You eventually have to wean yourself off that, though.
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Count Arioch the 28th
- King
- Posts: 6172
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Yeah, that's the part I'm at. I'm starting to find enemies that want to hit me repeatedly so dodging both at the same time is less than helpful. I have now mastered the section I'm in and feel comfy with the enemies there. Once I know what they do and get used to dodging, it's a breeze. Until the next section.
Really though, the game is pretty good. I'm enjoying it, even though I dread the mario/luigi sections.
Also, I've only died once as Bowser, and it was on the Giant Bowser vs. Tower of Yikk fight. Once I figured out you could get excellent on punches by rubbing the stylus repeatedly over the pattern instead of once, I found it to be fairly easy.
Really though, the game is pretty good. I'm enjoying it, even though I dread the mario/luigi sections.
Also, I've only died once as Bowser, and it was on the Giant Bowser vs. Tower of Yikk fight. Once I figured out you could get excellent on punches by rubbing the stylus repeatedly over the pattern instead of once, I found it to be fairly easy.
Last edited by Count Arioch the 28th on Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
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Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
- Posts: 8624
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
- Location: Oakland, CA
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Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
- Posts: 8624
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
- Location: Oakland, CA
Anyone have an opinion on Dragon Age: Origins?
I'm currently cautiously optimistic, expecting something better than Neverwinter Nights 2. The Escapist had a pretty positive review. I disliked Mass Effect, but I figure that as long as DA keeps from getting any more painfully tacky (I cringe whenever I see that blood dragon mascot), I should be able to enjoy this story. I won't have to worry about my character actually surprising me with the stupidity of the things he/she says. The toolset is the primary draw, and I don't know too much about it, but it can't be much less user-friendly than NWN2's, which I never figured out beyond making an area full of superpowered items that let me blow up the tedious combat encounters in much less time.
However, I lack a gaming PC (Mac OS X laptop right now, the last PC burnt out) for the immediately foreseeable future, so there's still time to change my mind or highlight something noteworthy about the game.
Also, a bit tangential, but I'm curious about the tabletop Dragon Age. A boxed set of rules for the first 5 of 20 levels for a very newbie-friendly fantasy RPG could be very useful. I didn't like the look of Green Ronin's Black Company d20 rules very much, but this isn't d20, so a lot of the problems with that could be avoided here.
I'm currently cautiously optimistic, expecting something better than Neverwinter Nights 2. The Escapist had a pretty positive review. I disliked Mass Effect, but I figure that as long as DA keeps from getting any more painfully tacky (I cringe whenever I see that blood dragon mascot), I should be able to enjoy this story. I won't have to worry about my character actually surprising me with the stupidity of the things he/she says. The toolset is the primary draw, and I don't know too much about it, but it can't be much less user-friendly than NWN2's, which I never figured out beyond making an area full of superpowered items that let me blow up the tedious combat encounters in much less time.
However, I lack a gaming PC (Mac OS X laptop right now, the last PC burnt out) for the immediately foreseeable future, so there's still time to change my mind or highlight something noteworthy about the game.
Also, a bit tangential, but I'm curious about the tabletop Dragon Age. A boxed set of rules for the first 5 of 20 levels for a very newbie-friendly fantasy RPG could be very useful. I didn't like the look of Green Ronin's Black Company d20 rules very much, but this isn't d20, so a lot of the problems with that could be avoided here.
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TarkisFlux
- Duke
- Posts: 1147
- Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2008 9:44 pm
- Location: Magic Mountain, CA
- Contact:
Disgaea DS if you want yet more turn based glory. The World Ends With You if you want an interesting action rpg.MGuy wrote:I have 30 free floating dollars and I wanna get a nintendo DS game. I have and like final fantasy tactics, fire emblem, and chrono trigger. What would be a good game to add to my collection?
The wiki you should be linking to when you need a wiki link - http://www.dnd-wiki.org
Fectin: "Ant, what is best in life?"
Ant: "Ethically, a task well-completed for the good of the colony. Experientially, endorphins."
Fectin: "Ant, what is best in life?"
Ant: "Ethically, a task well-completed for the good of the colony. Experientially, endorphins."
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Ganbare Gincun
- Duke
- Posts: 1022
- Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:42 am
I'm probably going to pick it up this weekend. I've heard nothing but good things about it from reviewers, and two people I know have been playing it practically non-stop (aside from usual WoW Guild Duties, of course). But you're DEFINITELY want to get the PC version - the interface and the graphics are far superior to the XBox 360 version. And hey - no SecuROM!Avoraciopoctules wrote:Anyone have an opinion on Dragon Age: Origins?