lukefonfabre388
Sonic Wing
Move like a shadow, sting like a nuke.
Posts: 469
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Post by lukefonfabre388 on Apr 14, 2024 3:20:23 GMT
I picked up rune factory 1 for ds and I have been playing it for the past three days. Then I decided I did not want to wait to grind up to 200,000 gold to increase my house size so I used action replay to give myself infinite money which has kind of taken the fun out of the game. I am going to start a new game though but honestly I should have just made two copies of my save file one with cheats the other without since the game gives you two slots for save games.
Also been playing harvest moon ds cute. A lot less playtime with that one compared to rune factory but still have a few hours into it.
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lukefonfabre388
Sonic Wing
Move like a shadow, sting like a nuke.
Posts: 469
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Post by lukefonfabre388 on Apr 22, 2024 19:41:55 GMT
Took forever but I started a new game on rune factory 1 for ds and I finally managed to save up enough money to expand the house. Took about 3 to 4 days to save up enough money. Lots of planting crops, mining rocks for ores, and picking up anything that can be sold. Also took forever to cut enough stumps to get enough wood as you also need 2000 wood to expand the house. So, now I have two save files on the cart one for serious play and one for not serious play.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Apr 23, 2024 16:16:38 GMT
Final Fantasy III (3D Remake) - PC 9 Years of Shadow - PC Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Switch
FFIII 3D has been fun, and seemed logical after doing the FFIV 3D remake recently. I never got very far in the DS version, so this has been fun.
9 Years of Shadow has been a great, pretty, pixel-art metroidvania so far. A friend recommended it because it isn't very long.
XBC2 has been fun to pick up again, though I'm still only on chapter 2. Good god, I wish you could climb things though.
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centipede
CGR Undertow Groupie
It was just one soy latte, I swear!
Posts: 2,700
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Post by centipede on Apr 28, 2024 13:15:45 GMT
I've been playing the New Game + mode of Sonic Frontiers. There's a new section added by the update where you get to play as Sonic's friends. I know where I have to go with Knuckles, but he's jank! My plan now is to level up his gliding. Also, I bought Steamworld Dig. You dig down, get treasure, upgrade, repeat. Finding precious gems is easy, it's the rare glowing orbs you need for the good gear. I'm now in the alien tech section with the lasers and kamikaze robots. Update: passed all the sidekick quests, but the new Sonic stages are just annoying. Rescuing animals, finding all the coins before you leave, double boost power ups. I don't know if it's me or slippery controls.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Apr 29, 2024 6:03:15 GMT
Bravely Default II - PC 9 Years of Shadow - PC Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Switch Finishing the 3D Remake of Final Fantasy III put me in the mood for some Bravely Default. I remember the demo of BDII looking a bit rough on the Switch, though I did enjoy it, and the Steam version was on sale, so I thought I'd give it a go.
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Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
Posts: 2,821
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Post by Cervantes on May 9, 2024 6:28:20 GMT
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PC)
The final game in a trilogy that is being surprisingly pleasant to me. I think this third game was built upon the Lightning DLC for FF XIII-2: in that one, you controlled a single character in a duel fight. It was awesome and (in my opinion) the best fight in the game, but the limitations of the battle system hindered it a bit. Basically, you had to be quick on your feet to change Lightning's roles/jobs at the right time so she could maximize her attack or defense capabilities, but to navigate the menus at that fast speed was very tiresome in a prolonged fight and I kept thinking how better it would be if each attack and role could just be assigned to a button. Well, that's exactly what happens in LR: Lightning is the single playable character; while the battles still transition to a different screen (so it's not a straight up action game), once the fight starts it works pretty much as an action game, and a very good one at that. L1 and R1 change your roles and four different actions (attack, magic, guard, debuffs) can be assigned to XYBA; the traditional ATB bar now work as a stamina meter, similar to Dark Souls. But everything is very customizable: instead of the fixed roles from the previous games, you can just customize three different sets of equipment and actions. So, let's say, you have one focused on magic enhancing items and all the actions are magic attacks, then you have one to deal physical damage and another focused on defense and debuffs, or you just build three balanced ones but based on different elemental attacks - it's a very open-ended system. But you can't rely on a single role/outfit because each one have its own stamina bar and it drains very fast, which means you have to switch roles constantly while the stamina recovers.
As in the previous games, enemies have weaknesses that can be explored to stagger them, but LR also focuses on timing: parrying negates damage completely and tends to stagger enemies; they can also be staggered if attacked when doing specific actions. In general, the combat is fast and hard, especially since, unlike the previous two games, Lightning does not recover health after every fight, at least not on Normal mode, and she can only carry six recovery items. While potions are cheap, sometimes there are long stretches without any shops to buy them. The other main way to recover health is by spending Energy Points, but they are limited, take a while to recover through battles and there are other important uses to them, like pausing time.
Which brings me to the main aspect of the game that might drive people away from it: the entire campaign is a time-based mission, similar to Majora's Mask or Shenmue. But while in Majora you just go back to the first day and in Shenmue you have absurdly generous 133 days to finish the quest (most people don't even know there's a time limit), LR gives you initially seven days (each day is one hour in real time) that can be extended to 13 if you complete the main quests. While it is more generous than it seems at first, as battles and conversations aren't counted and you have a limited ability to pause the clock for a minute, it still means you can't just appreciate the scenery or explore it at your own pace. At best, it's not bad but not how I would normally play an RPG; at worst, it's nerve-wrecking and makes it very tempting to save-scum (which is probably why it lets you save anywhere). But I do have to stress how that clock looks more troublesome than it actually is: I'm at the fourth day and have already played around 25 hours and probably done over 20 sidequests and two main quests on this first, blind playthrough. Besides, I've read that the game does have a New Game+. I would still have preferred if there wasn't this time element, it puts an unnecessary pressure on a game that, otherwise, would be pretty chill... But maybe some people like playing as speedrunners all the time even in very long RPGs, I don't know.
The game is divided in four main, large areas that can be explored in any order. It certainly has less variation that the previous two games, but its areas are large, complex and filled with so many sidesquests that they feel enough - to compare with FF XIII-2, imagine every area being roughly the size of Academia, maybe even a bit larger. I'm also enjoying the story, as it's treated in a more serious tone and without the slightly annoying protagonists from FF XIII-2, although LR has the less elaborate cutscenes in the trilogy (most of the time, just two characters standing and talking). What is really driving me crazy is their decision to use the late 2000s/2010s cliche of the operator that somehow can just see everything that the main character is looking at: the guy keeps calling all the time to state the obvious, it's very annoying; but what is really egregious is that the clock doesn't stop while he is talking and speaking to anyone will stop his lines, so if you want to hear what he is saying (very rarely there IS something important among his blabbering), you'll have to lose those precious minutes while doing nothing. It is a very stupid design decision.
All that said, I'm a bit torn: on one hand, the combat is fun, I'm enjoying the story and places to explore, the visuals are beautiful; on the other hand, I simply do not enjoy very much playing time-based missions, even generous ones. It's a Majora's Mask situation: a game that I enjoyed a lot but it's the only 8/16/64-bit Zelda that I never played again just because of how much of a chore I remember it was managing the clock.
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dschult3
CGR Undertow Groupie
The true heir to the Monado.
Posts: 2,777
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Post by dschult3 on May 16, 2024 12:48:15 GMT
I played a bit of the new games on the GameBoy Online Service on the Switch. Alleyway has always been a favorite of mine, and it is an old school clone of Breakout. Baseball is ok, I guess. Super Mario Land 1 is interesting. I haven't played it since 1989 or 1990. The game, the physics, and even the music are just weird. I know it was made by a different team, but it is a trip playing it after playing recent Mario games.
Although now that I think of it, Super Mario Wonder is weird within itself.
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