PS2 Survival Horror Roundup & Help Needed

[Hushigoshi]

nah I never did, I heard it was pretty bad... or am I wrong?

I don't know, hence why i was asking haha. I heard it was a good idea on paper, but poorly executed once it was a finished product!

Anyway I'm glad I decided to stick with PE, I really haven't had that many problems playing but I've been pretty diligent about crafting the stats from my unused gear onto the pistol I'm currently using. I can definitely see how I'd really be hating this game if I wasn't a little bit overleveled, I am trying to play very conservatively and I'm still getting hit a lot, especially with darkness-based attacks in the sewers.

I'm actually kinda overwhelmed by the upgrading system. Right now I have a shotgun that could transfer burst fire onto my pistol but I'm reluctant to waste the +2/+2/+1 it would give to my stats if I used a supertool, same with armor I want to cannibalize for auto-heal or resist slow but I don't know if I'm going to have enough super tools later to transfer everything off my armor to the ultimate armor I end up with. Do you get a healthy supply of Super Tools in the chrysler building? Right now I'm kinda bouncing around with what to do... farming junk is boring (I only have about 100 turned in) and I was farming tools/defense+1s from that slime in the hospital until I have enough to use up all my crappy +1 gear, but that's getting boring too.

From what I can remember, the most super tools you can get in your first playthrough is like 4 or 5 max! Once you're on your EX play though, in the Chrysler Building you can find these rare named trading cards scattered throughout the building. If you find all 14 of them, Wayne will give you a Supertool Kit, aka unlimited super tools! He'll give you a Tool Kit (unlimited tools) once you find 10 or 12 cards. Can't remember the exact amount. But you will find Supertools scattered in chests in the CB and I think some mobs have a small chance of dropping them.

Remember, all the items you find, you'll find again in your second playthrough! So you'll have plenty of opportunities to gut weapons and armor for special effects and +stats!

Oh yeah, and what are some of the best added effects for armor? Currently I have only resist poison but I'm using somewhat crappy armor that has 4 slots, so I'll probably upgrade eventually. Do I need to bother with resist poison/resist slow, or auto-heal/auto-cure? I can imagine people playing this game over and over to really soup up their gear lol.

Um, best effects on armor....

off the top of my head...

HP Up (more health is never a bad thing)
Attack Up (more damage!)
Inventory +(1-4)
PE Light (lowers the casting cost of abilities)
Auto Heal is ok but it will automatically use the most powerful Med you have to heal you.

For your first playthrough, what's the point of engraving your gear on the Nimitz? Is it the engraved items in your inventory that transfer over to an EX game, or will weapon/armor that's just equipped by aya (but not engraved) transfer over too?

Only items that are engraved will transfer. All weapons, armor, ammo, and items (meds cures tools etc) that are on Aya when you beat the final boss will be lost once you start over. Everything that is stored with Wayne WILL carry over though. But honestly, your engraved items will probably be your best items so you'd have them equipped anyways haha. Unless you mean like a spare armor to switch out when your PE stops recharging? Just use a junky one that you won't care about losing because once you switch you'll want to switch back to your best armor anyways. That's when the command x 2 effect on a weapon will come handy

edit: Oh, grinding for exp from 33 (aquiring liberate) to 38 is probably the most painful thing imaginable. But, there is an upside! going from levels 38 to 39 only takes 5000 exp i think and same with all levels after. You'll quickly get to level 99 which is very nice but it will take a lot of patience to grind that much exp. Also, the most inventory you can have is 50 item slots, 54 if you got inv+4 on your armor (i think). So no need to spend a lot of bonus points increasing your inventory if you plan on grinding past level 38 since you'll get 50 inventory from your leveling anyways.

[Elcura]

Damnit man you're really making me itch to play this game again...it was on my list of "Beat everything 100% so I never have to do it again" back when I was still in middle/high school, but you talking about it has me wanting to play bad lol.

All this talk makes me want to do the tower again. I never got that far when I replayed it. Shit was fun, and rewarding as hell at the end (even though back then I didn't get what the fuck was going on).

[Atreides]

I don't know, hence why i was asking haha. I heard it was a good idea on paper, but poorly executed once it was a finished product!

Um, best effects on armor....

off the top of my head...

HP Up (more health is never a bad thing)
Attack Up (more damage!)
Inventory +(1-4)
PE Light (lowers the casting cost of abilities)
Auto Heal is ok but it will automatically use the most powerful Med you have to heal you.

Yeah that's what I heard about the first xfiles game too. The ps2 xfiles game is similarly a great concept, since it's basically just like any other ps2 survival horror game (it even has scully performing autopsies iirc) but similarly it's a bit meh on the execution.

As for super tools, I guess I'll hold onto them for now until I get a gun I'm going to stick with for a while (like the t-rex gun) or some nice armor. I really wish FAQs listed the max slots on a piece of armor/weapon so I could plan ahead. I actually have a vest with HP Max + (it also has AT Speed Down on it) but Im reluctant to transfer it to my current armor since that'll mean I'll need another super tool to put it on another armor, and it also adds +2/+1/+1 to stats that I don't really want to lose, but I guess if you're saying I can just keep reacquiring the same gear over and over maybe I should just waste the small stat bonuses so I can have the HP Max?

I guess the best armor you get (in terms of slots/stats) before EX mode is the B Jacket 1 (has anti poison) on the 4th floor of the museum, or the CM Protector (has auto heal) from the Pier 3 Warehouse, so I guess I'll start transferring shit to one of those.

edit: Oh yeah, I'm guessing you have to actually use the trading cards in order to get the tool box? I got like 20 from that hidden box on the first floor of the hospital, but I just tossed them all in storage since trading cards are kinda useless considering how few added effects you get before the end of your first playthrough.

[Salodin]

Yea you actually have to use them lol. God damnit if the gf wasn't over harassing me I'd try catching up to you lol.

[Hushigoshi]

Yea you actually have to use them lol. God damnit if the gf wasn't over harassing me I'd try catching up to you lol.

the cards found in the hospital are normal trading cards. they don't count towards the fourteen you need to get a super tool kit!

The rare trading cards are actual NAMED cards, and if you turn them into Wayne to use, he'll actually allow you to add 2 slots at one time to a piece of equipment.

These cards are ONLY found in the Chrysler Building in your 2nd+ playthrough.

I found This FAQs pretty good for a list of all the weapons and armor, with the amount of possible slots you can have on it.

[Atreides]

Ok, I'm an idiot. I knew that Rare Trading Cards were used to get a Super Tool Kit, but I thought regular Trading Cards could be used to get the Regular Tool Kit. So I just wasted all 20 of them opening slots on all my weapons I was saving to tool onto my main weapon, and of course I wasn't getting the Tool Kit lol

I just got Liberate a few battles before the Triceratops, now I've just beaten the T-Rex (which wasn't hard at all, since I'm decently well leveled and I've been keeping up with my weapon/armor upgrades) and arrived on the Nimitz. I am really loving this game but I definitely think it's the upgrade system that makes the game... without the ability to uber-customize your weapon I think people would have a problem getting past Aya's ridiculously slow walking speed. I am really excited for my EX game playthrough so I can make a ridiculously awesome weapon (unless I get bored first lol).

[Salodin]

You will lol, but stick with the chrysler building, the ending was well worth it imo.

[Elcura]

You will lol, but stick with the chrysler building, the ending was well worth it imo.

Agreed, tower is worth the pay off for sure.

And if you think the walking speed is weird in PE1, PE2 makes control in the field and in a battle as different as night and day lol. Really hard to go from fighting in PE2 to a normal RE-style game.

[Atreides]

So I've been doing some research about the weapon I want to make, think I'm gonna go with the P90 (the 300 junk machine gun). It has 7 slots so I've been toying around with builds and want to get some feedback:

Critical Rate Up
Triple Command
Rate of Fire x3 (I'm a little torn on this, ROFx2 would be less standing still but supposedly Crit Rate Up procs really often so that'd be less chances)
Burst
First Strike
Tranquilizer
Acid (I wasn't really sure what to put here, Acid seems marginally more useful than Cyanide but I'm not sure. Counterattack seems like it'd be useful but annoying since it makes you stop moving, so I don't really want it that badly)

What do people think of that setup?

Luckily the best armor has enough slots for all 10 of the good effects, so wheeee

[Salodin]

I don't remember the status effects I did, but I know I didn't care a whole bunch cause the stats were so high shit was almost insta-dying to me.

[Atreides]

Ok yeah, Chrysler Building is boring as shit. I just got to the 50th floor, only on my second play through but stuff is really easy with a souped up P90. Looking forward to getting my ultimate armor made in the last block of 20 floors, I'd be more upset about not having anything challenging left to kill after that if I wasn't so ready to be fucking done with this game, lol. I really love this game though

I really want to play PE2 next but I might be PE'd out for now. Is it just as in-depth as the first in terms of upgrades and customization?

[Elcura]

Ok yeah, Chrysler Building is boring as shit. I just got to the 50th floor, only on my second play through but stuff is really easy with a souped up P90. Looking forward to getting my ultimate armor made in the last block of 20 floors, I'd be more upset about not having anything challenging left to kill after that if I wasn't so ready to be fucking done with this game, lol. I really love this game though

I really want to play PE2 next but I might be PE'd out for now. Is it just as in-depth as the first in terms of upgrades and customization?

PE2 is completely different than PE1, apart from the story and characters still being weird and interesting, the game play is nothing alike. PE2 is much more like Resident Evil, weapons have a few customization options, like different attachments and bullets but that's as far as you get. The PE system is different too, instead of learning PE as you level up, you learn PE in categories and you have to pick which ones you want to master. There are 4 categories, earth, fire, wind and water. Earth is stuff like Energy Shot and Barrier, Wind is mostly poison skills, fire is a no-brainer, water is healing. Each skill in a category has like 2-3 levels which makes the skills significantly better. After mastering a few skills, a final secret one pops up.

Best thing about PE2 is the replayability and difficulty. But more than that, unlocking secret weapons (most interesting being Squall's Gunblade).

[Salodin]

Yea PE-2 had wicked replayability. I found the gameplay really fun with gun attachments and stuff, and of course the production value was high for its time so you know you'll enjoy it thoroughly. You don't customize your guns in the same way as PE-1, but the system was still enjoyable and it's not exactly bad compared to PE1, it's just different.

If it wasn't for the plot though you'd swear the two games had nothing to do with each other; the gameplay is just that different lol.

[Atreides]

Oh yeah, totally forgot about this thread. PE2 was decent although nowhere near as good as the first game. I guess I liked parts of the attachment and magic system but overall it was a little disappointing, especially having only 20 inventory slots and non-universal item boxes, and the fact that it was so linear. Overall it felt just like people told me, like Resident Evil mixed with RPG elements, but somehow not as cool as that description makes it sound. I definitely agree that the story/setting makes it feel like an entirely different game than the original.

I also finished up RE4 HD (for 6th or 7th time) and finally found a copy of RE5 Gold so I can replay that too, but my bf is insisting he wants to play RE5 with me which I'm kinda iffy on. I know the AI sucks for Sheva, but how does RE5 play in split screen?

Anyway, I'm currently playing Siren: Blood Curse, which is probably the best horror game I've played this generation... by far. The music is really great and the story/combat/difficulty has been hugely improved over the PS2 original, which I found to be too difficult and unforgiving. It's hard to track down, but if you're a horror fan you should definitely track down a disc copy from an import shop or try to find it on PSN somewhere (I don't even think it's on US PSN anymore, actually). Maybe I'll look into modding my ps2 or something so I can finally play the EU version of Siren 2 (which is also supposedly a lot better than Siren 1).

There's actually a few horror games coming up that have piqued my interest. I really can't wait for Amy:

Amy: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/09/30/in...-paul-cuisset/
Silent Hill Downpour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ree1-...layer_embedded
Afterfall: Insanity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1PnqGbANMI