So What Are YOU Playing?

[Atreides]

enslaved and castlevania are both next week, and both look awesome

[Tobi]

I feel beyond lame for never getting into the Castlevania series The newer games do look awesome, so I'll eventually try it out again.

[Atreides]

the only one I've ever beaten is symphony of the night lol

I'm not really a castlevania fan so much as I'm a games fan in general, and this castlevania has a lot of stuff that interestes me (upgrade/leveling system, highly produced games with great voice work, etc)

[Kaisha]

If you liked Symphony of the Night you should give the three DS renditions (preferably in order of their release) a try since they borrow heavily from that game's formula.



Anyways, I had an itch to play some Shadows of the Empire thanks to a /v/ thread the other day, and since I couldn't be arsed to hook up the N64 I opted to just use an emulator, which worked to varying success, some slowdown here and there. I beat the game on medium difficulty in a single sitting, and that fixed my itch. I forgot how rage-inducing the controls could be at times, especially when jumping platforms prior to obtaining the jetpack, especially for the ones that are out of your way to nab a challenge point. It was time well spent at any rate, and I'd love a followup on the game since the ending of it leaves Dash Render open to doing whatever the fuck he wants, without needing to be tied to the plot of the Star Wars movies. The concept of a freelance for hire in the Star Wars universe who has his own spacecraft and a droid assistant should be appealing enough for most folks.


Sad thing was that I remembered nearly everything from when I played the game to death way the fuck back in the day. Got nearly all the challenge points without really trying, although I got restless 2/3rds into the game and figured I'd quit wasting time at that point.
(that, and fuck the sewer level)

[Tobi]

I'll probably be trying Lord of Shadows out a few weeks after it releases

And holy shit, I should play my DS more often... I missed out on alot good RPGs that released for it. I don't usually keep up with DS titles since I don't play as much, but looks like that's about to change

[Atreides]

yeah I got most of the way through portrait of ruin, that was a lot of fun.

Have you played Soma Bringer, Tobi? If you have a flash cart you need to play that next, no matter what

[Tobi]

Looked at a few youtube vids and it looks pretty interesting. Looks like you can create your own character(I think) and customize it a bit, along with choosing a class? I'll definitely look more into, then try it out. I definitely want to play Luminous Arc and DQ games that are on DS. There's two games I heard of that were really good, but I forgot their names since it's been awhile. I haven't really touched my DS since I stopped playing Days ages ago.

[Atreides]

Simply put, it's a japanese take on Diablo (I've heard it called "diablo meets secret of mana" but I haven't played that) with 6 character classes and an unbelievable soundtrack. There's loot with rarity tiers and random stats, a rune-type upgrade system, a huge story mode as well as optional uber bosses and bonus dungeons. Oh, and you can respec your character whenever you want for free.

[Corrderio]

Circle of the Moon is a pretty good Castlevania title if you're looking for one with the level up/RPG elements in it.

[Tobi]

I thought it looked like it had some Secret Mana/Sword of Mana elements, with how the attacks and view looks, but it still looked different. It sounds like it has a lot of content, which is good for me. I can usually breeze through games pretty quickly.

And man, I was hoping Circle of the Moon was a DS title, but it goes way back to GBA days. The last GBA game I can remember playing is either Pokemon or CoM

[Dominico]

If you're looking to get into the Metroidvanias, I'd suggest playing them in the order they were released. Symphony of the Night > Circle of the Moon > Harmony of Dissonance > Aria of Sorrow > Dawn of Sorrow > Portrait of Ruin > Order of Ecclesia. Shows how the series gradually got better with every release.

[Kiarax]

Lol, most people would disagree there with SotN being their favourite. But yeah, you definitely don't wanna pass up the GBA ones, they're pretty much all great. DoS suffers from some touch screen gimmicks but they got rid of that shit for Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia thankfully. You honestly can't really go wrong with any Castlevania game, barring the 3d ones which are hit or miss and Simon's Quest.

I'm playing Wild Arms XF right now, not the greatest SRPG but it actually has some challenging missions here and there, which is a nice change of pace from... well, most SRPGs. I was playing Tales of Rebirth but I was struggling to get in to it, ended up downloading Ys vs Sora no Kiseki to play on the side instead of it. Ended up playing it for like 5 hours straight, enjoying it a whole lot more than Tales of VS (mostly thanks to the AI in Tales being downright terrible and this having a much better "story" mode). Very simple too, so it's easy to play in Japanese aside from accessories.

[Kaisha]

Picked up a couple PS3 games today.

Got Splinter Cell: Double Agent for PS3 since I was fucking around on the Wii version earlier and couldn't stomach the controls, and that the PS3 copy was only $9 used, with the disc being in perfect condition (thank you protective bluray layer), so why not. Only thing I know is that the PS3 port suffers from low framerate, but whatever, $9, I can live with it. Felt like playing a Splinter Cell game on my console, as I wasn't in the mood for installing the prior three in the series on my PC. Will see just how buggy this game really is, was apparently a bad offender according to my brother who used to be big into the series until this entry.

Also picked up Bayonetta, which I finally found a copy for $20 new in my area, at a Walmart no less (EB Games next door was still selling it for $45). I'm guessing SEGA made a second print run of the PS3 version or something? Game case is using the current model with the black header at the top, and I recall Bayonetta initially having the older design. Fucking loving the music in the game, and just finished the prologue. Going to install it later when I free up some disc space as the load times are a bit crazy. Is there anything I should know about while I'm still early in the game? I do plan to platinum it, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the missable department thanks to the chapter select function, just like the DMC series before it.

[Kiarax]

It is very easy to Platinum, hardest part is finding the treasure chests which are pretty easy to stumble across if you actually look around each stage a bit.

[Souj]

Fly me to the moon. Let me sing among those stars. Let me see what spring is like On Jupiter and Mars.
Been listening to this song for the last 30minutes trying to beat the 3 gold guys on Route 666. INSANITY!
I think I'll have to give in and make some purple lolipops.

I would use a walkthrough guide to find all the chests and portals on your first Normal runthrough. Well, at least for the Alfeim Portals.


edit: You can activate witch time if you dodge a car -_- Made that fight a lot easier...

[Atreides]

Is there anything I should know about while I'm still early in the game? I do plan to platinum it, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the missable department thanks to the chapter select function, just like the DMC series before it.

Arguably Selene's Light (puts you into witch time whenever you get hit, as long as you have magic) is probably the most useful accessory for early in the game but it may be more worthwhile to just get the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa first and learn to use that.

Personally (assuming you're a completionist) I would play the game on easy first to get the immortal marionette (and not use it), since Easy becomes excruciatingly boring if you've already gotten good at pulling off combos/dodging, but I don't think you need that accessory for any trophies and you can't collect broken witch hearts/moon pearls/umbran tears on any difficulty below normal.

oh and I went and used this guide to unlock everything quickly, then went back and actually fulfilled the actual unlock conditions for most everything after the fact, but I probably wouldn't have had the patience to do it the other way around.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/9463...tta/faqs/58929

[Kaisha]

Is the marionette an easy-only reward? I'm already doing fine on Normal so I'd prefer to just keep at it there. Dodging like a pro for the most part, unless the difficulty ramps up quite a bit after the first couple hours.

Does the PS3 patch fix anything other than adding an install option btw? I'm just feeling lazy atm and not in the mood to download an update if it's just strictly an install, to which I don't have the HD space free for currently.

[Atreides]

Yea, you have to beat the game on easy or very easy to get it. If you notice on the equip screen there's a 3rd accessory slot, that Immortal Marionette is permanently equipped in that slot on Very Easy/Easy. Beating the game on Easy will let you equip it on other playthroughs. Honestly I really don't like it, since you have much less control over your combos it seems, but far be it from me to not collect an accessory that I'll never use lol

[Kaisha]

I'll probably skip on that then. I'm probably going to have my first playthrough be fairly free going without guide reliance. Will just mean I'll very likely have to do a clean-up run after I'm nearly done with the trophies.

On a side note, holy crap is Splinter Cell: Double Agent on PS3 a bad port, lol. Shit runs almost as bad as the game does on my PC (borrowed my bro's copy a long time ago to try). Estimating a shaky 10-15fps, but at least the graphics are good looking still, three years later. Well, at least it's easier to control with analog sticks at this framerate than mouse/keyboard. Hope to enjoy the game regardless of the porting flaws, I've not played a Spinter Cell game in ages. I just wish it had a quick-save button mapped somewhere.

I do hope Ubisoft goes through with the trilogy-pack idea for the first three Splinter Cell games, I never finished them. Got near the end of the first, and Pandora Tomorrow/Chaos Theory I wasted all of my time playing multiplayer on. Shit was amazing for the time.

[Wintermute]

Dead Rising 2.
Second playthrough. Saved 51 survivors on the first run, now trying to save everyone, kill all the psychos, and do all the weapon achievements. Goddam there's a lot of stuff to throw at zombies in this.

Little annoyed how pretty much all the combo-weapons are overshadowed by the Knife Gloves though. Sort of relegates the others to (hilarious) novelty value.