So What Are YOU Playing?

[Elcura]

Finished the 4th arc in MGS4 and all I can say is...

1) Holy crap the nostalgia of revisiting Shadow Moses

2) Kojima needs to make an actual game where you pilot Metal Gear REX. That shit was fun during the REX/RAY fight.

ZoE is the answer.

[Corrderio]

ZoE?

[Gokulo]

Zone of Enders
It's a Kojima game where you pilot a mech in space.

[Kaelan?]

[Gokulo]

Now I feel like an idiot for simply not linking a video

[Corrderio]

Huh, for some reason I was right about the abbreviation even though I never played it... weird...

[Salodin]

Please tell me you saw the epilogue...

[Corrderio]

ZoE? Nope.

[KetSC]

I am enjoying playing FFXIII again on the PC.

Playing FFXIII again, I do notice a few things:

Spoiler: show

1. The stagger system I dislike. For most battles, it is fine but for a lot of them, it causes pacing issues. Like a lot of the enemies take almost no damage (or have some resistance to damage) until you stagger them. So you are taking like 2-3 minutes of boring (and slowly) damaging an enemy until you stagger them and the fight ends right there.

Also (for boss battles especially), once you stagger the boss, the battle almost ends right there.

So there is this weird pacing issue in fights. I like fights where you don't have to stagger to defeat the monsters.

I think a lot of the balancing in FFXIII got screwed up due to the stagger system (I do love XIII-2 but this also applies to XIII-2 sadly). They should have just ignored it (or at least made it so that damage didn't increase so dramatically from unstaggered to staggered) and it probably would have the game a lot better.

One of the boss battles that was done right in FFXIII is the final boss in Titan's trial (I forgot the name) and part of the reason is the enemy didn't have stagger bar (well it did have it but it was at 999 I think, so you won't hit stagger on it but you will gradually increase the damage you do). The pacing of the battle was better in that fight than the usual "do almost no damage until you hit the stagger limit and stagger the enemy, then for 20 seconds, do 10x more damage until stagger ends, then do no damage until you have to stagger again, rinse and repeat).

2. I forgot that accessory combos were even a thing in the FFXIII (it adds a bit of customization to the game which is nice). I had a lot of fun grinding early in the game and maxing out a few accessories.

3. Speaking of that, a lot of the abilities and traits on items aren't worth it. For a lot of the weapons, you usually just go for stats (like a 700 attack and 700 magic weapon is much better than a 300 attack/magic weapon with ATB Charge II). There are a few exceptions where abilities on weapons are useful (the debuffing wand for example) but for the most part it's better to go for one with the highest stats.

Small things like balancing the stats and abilities better would have made FFXIII a lot better. Also I dislike that Libra costs TP to use (instead of using TP for cool stuff like summons, I find I just want to Libra everything 2-3x just to make sure I have 100% completion for my Enemy Intel in the Data Log). (Also having to use Libra 3x just to find out all of the enemy's details is also silly too.)

Speaking of summons, they should have made them cost 2 TP at most instead of 3 TP. Most times I find I end up saving TP just to Libra the enemies (to make sure I get 100% enemy intel) than actually summoning . Also what is with having to Libra an enemy 3x (instead of 1 time) just to get it fully revealed too? They should have either made Libra cost 0 TP (it still does take up time to cast it, even if it doesn't use any ATB) and/or made summons cost 2 TP or less.

Besides that, I am actually enjoying playing FFXIII again on the PC. Also I forgot that there are so many pre-rendered cutscenes in the game (there's like one for every other five in game cutscenes).

[dejet]

Just got freedom wars. Not much time to play but I think I am just getting past the tutorial and it seems like a lot of fun.

[Genosync]

I'm having fun playing FFXIII again, except for the part where every single bit of the gameplay sucks and is a chore and was done all wrong

And thanks for reminding me why I never bothered with it in the first place. I could give a crap less about corridors; staggering was annoying and a time waster enough in LR (which I only bothered with to get a summary of the convoluted thing they tried to call a 'plot') when there were mobs you couldn't do a damn thing to without a stagger near the end of the game, and you basically had to have an exact kind of setup to deal with.

[Salodin]

ZoE? Nope.

No, for mgs4. Please tell me you stayed till the end. The very end end...

[Corrderio]

Not yet. I'm only on the 5th arc which I'm going to do tonight.

[Salodin]

Ohhh, forgot it was 5 acts not 4 o_O. Sooo...with out spoilering you're...not on land right?

[Corrderio]

Nope. Just started the fifth act.

[Salodin]

That entire act is a masterpiece. Sit back and enjoy the finale my friend.

[Corrderio]

Yup, just beat it. Liquid was a bitch to fight though just because it got annoying trying to figure out each version's combat techniques. Loved how the fight felt like the final fight between Snake/Liquid on Metal Gear REX all the way back to MGS1. Meryl/Johnny scene was great too.

[Salodin]

Did you watch after credits?

[Corrderio]

Did you watch after credits?

Yup. Kojima did a great job kicking my feels square in the dick.

[Salodin]

I cried like a baby during that epilogue. Now that you've played them all in such a short time, what do you think?