toxicitizen

Yeah, neither did I. When I started seeing people sharing builds with the same functions twice in it, I spent a good 20mins trying to figure out how the fuck they did it only to give up in frustration. Then a few levels later I unlocked my first duplicate and just went "oh..." lol. Jaunt() is a good pick, yeah. Void() as well, once as passive and once as upgrade for maximum damage. Think I got Ping() as well. Most OP combo I've used so far was Tap()+Void()+Ping(). Lifedrain, decent damage and you can queue up like 5 of them. Works wonders in a pinch, I barely ever overload since I started using it.

I've seen a few builds online that people referred to as being "easy mode", might wanna look into one of those. Honestly, even a single OP ability can make a world of difference. Then, a little ways into NG+, you can start unlocking function duplicates so you can use stuff like void() as a passive and also as an upgrade. Some of them are really useful to have twice.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention. Man, I'm on fire lately. That was pretty much the last unfinished game I had to beat. I had played through a good chunk of the story when I first bought it a couple months ago but then I got busy and just kinda forgot about it. Finally got around to playing the last few chapters. I had already played the PS3 version but, as expected, the game just feels so much better on a handheld. The story is the same ridiculous sappy crap but it looks a lot better on a small screen. It's not like the game's very basic visuals really benefited from being displayed on a big screen in the first place but, for some reason that is beyond me, when they made this one they somehow figured that they didn't need to create HD sprites. So it just looks like blurry shit on PS3. It wouldn't be far-fetched to look at the PS3 version and wonder if you accidentally put in a PS2 disc. The Vita's OLED is much kinder to it in that regard. I was planning on starting Tales of Symphonia as soon as I was done with it but now I'm kinda tempted to just dig into the post-game stuff. There's always a ton of post-game shit to do in Disgaea but this version also includes all of the PS3's DLC, so there's probably another 30+ hours in there even if I don't try to go for the absolute hardest hidden boss.

Yep. I think we're done here.

Just watched the first Persona 3 movie, Spring of Birth. It's a pretty faithful adaption so far. I really liked it but I'm not sure how someone who hasn't played the game would feel. I mean, I've been watching the Persona 4 anime as well and, while I'm enjoying it, I can't help but feel like I'd think it was shit if I wasn't already familiar with the series, story and characters.

When someone says blockbusters, I think more along the lines of big summer movies rather than strictly financially successful ones. i.e. Transformers, Marvel, etc... Not all of them will necessarily be good or even financial successes. Same goes for AAA games. It's not a perfect analogy but it works.

Persona 4 Arena. Just finished the story mode. It's a great fighting game but I was in it primarily for the story and... it was a tad disappointing. It was great at first but it's very similar to BlazBlue's story mode where it's essentially a visual novel with the occasional fight. And having to run through it with every single character to get the whole picture means you experience the same events repeatedly, watch the same cutscenes, go through slight variations of the same dialogues, etc. And what's kind of annoying is that they don't really align very well. Depending on who you're playing as, some events have different outcomes so in the end it's hard to have a clear picture of exactly what's supposed to have happened. This worked for BlazBlue because the lore allows for every single branching path to be canon, even the joke endings or the bad ones where the characters die. But here, it just feels kinda weird because it's considered a canonical sequel to P4. At least it was mostly straightforward, no convoluted branching paths like in BB. Also, it was pretty cool to find out what happened with the P3 cast after P3's ending. That alone made it all worthwhile. Apparently, Ultimax (the sequel) will have a completely different structure. Instead of going through the same story with every single character, it'll be split in two parts big parts. One from the P3 side and one for P4. That sounds like a massive improvement because the current format just wasn't a good fit for the kind of story they're telling.

Transistor. So, I went into this one with high expectations even though I never quite understood why everyone creamed themselves so hard over Bastion. It was good but it seemed like everyone else was seeing something in it that I didn't. Transistor also felt a lot like that until something finally clicked in the last hour and a half. Everything about it screamed at me that I should be loving it. The visual style and aesthetics were great, the music was amazing and the semi turn-based combat should've been right up my alley. I think a big part of it was that the game doesn't really explain much to you, which I'm pretty sure is deliberate. So, for the first few hours, I was using the Turn() ability wrong and that made for some frustrating moments where it felt like I was constantly being punished but wasn't really sure what I was doing wrong. Once I finally realized how I was being an idiot, though, everything fell into place. This game is fucking great and now I'm kinda kicking myself for ruining my first playthrough like that. Oh well, there's still recursion mode I guess.

The first two Muramasa Rebirth DLC are 50% off right now so I finally grabbed 'em. I've been meaning to go back to the game for a while, mostly cause I want to platinum it, so this gives me a good excuse to do it soonish.

Is Demon's Souls cult? I see people talking about it almost as much as Dark, usually calling it superior (which I disagree with). But really, it probably boils down to Demon's still being a Playstation exclusive while Dark is multiplat. More people have played Dark, plain and simple. And to echo what FDS said, if you actually finished the game then why would I assume that you hated it? If you hated it so much, why did you bother finishing it? I mean, it's a pretty long game. I would expect anyone to either be won over or toss it aside before the middle. I could probably come up with 5 reasons why I think Dark is a better game but really, if you hated Demon's Souls so much then I don't see how you'd feel any different towards Dark Souls. They're different but they're not THAT different. Most people view them as part of the same series for a reason.

Pretty much all I did was drop the quality part of it, so the messages couldn't possibly be all that mixed. As for these specifics I've supposedly yet to give, it's all in my initial post but I'll just spell it out for you again: it's big-budget games. That's been stated numerous times and not just by me. I personally never said anything about heavily marketed but yeah, when these companies sink huge budgets into a product they're going to market the shit out of it. What a shocker. Still not sure how it's a bullshit marketing term when there's a widely accepted definition of what it refers to.

Lol. Because earlier I was saying that "blockbuster" is a bit too vague? I just figured that the distinction wasn't particularly necessary after all, since the gist of it remains largely the same. It's the big games. But hey, feel free to use my "lack of consistency" to convince yourself you're right.

Arguing specifics beyond what was already said would be a massive waste of time. Ethan's blockbuster analogy is good enough for me.

I'm not sure what's stupider, Dean. Your post or this actually getting its own thread...

Hooooly shit! I was kinda meh on this after Arkham Origins, it just kinda burned me out on the series and I wasn't all that eager to get another "more of the same" sequel. But goddamn, that was a fucking great trailer. Can't wait to see some proper gameplay footage. I'm assuming we'll get some at E3 considering it's ~6 months away.

Thing is, it's not some BS marketing term. At least, not comparable to nonsense like "blast processing". Your interpretation of what it means is irrelevant because it actually means something specific already. Murasaki Baby does look great, it's just not AAA. And I'm not sure why this even needs to be pointed out. I mean, it's not like not being AAA is inherently bad or anything...

Move on to Dark Souls, that is.

I'd argue that even just "blockbusters" is a bit vague. They're not just your big games, they're the ones that are good and expected to sell well. So something small like Murasaki Baby doesn't really qualify and neither would something that is objectively shit like A:CM. Although I guess A:CM is an odd one, especially since the marketing was grossly misleading about the game's quality. But a game can aim for AAA status and miss the mark. AAA games are your Last of Us, Metal Gear Solids, Assassin's Creeds, Halos, etc... I wouldn't even include handheld titles, tbh.

Lol. Really? I must've missed that part. 3D Realms must have been worth jack shit to be bought by such a seemingly small company. I had never even heard of Interceptor prior to the Rise of the Triad remake and, as far as I can tell, it's not like that was massively successful or anything.

3D Realms are only publishing it, I think. The developer is Interceptor Entertainment, the guys who made the recent Rise of the Triad remake.

Well, yeah, but only after I made that post.

Popular theory is that this is that Duke Nukem game they teased, but turned into something else for legal reasons. All I know for sure is that the devs strongly hinted at Duke Nukem while teasing their project's reveal a little while ago, even had a url along the lines of allouttagum.com or whatever. Then Gearbox made some legal threats. At first, 3D Realms insisted they still had some rights to use Duke but then all of a sudden they kinda backtracked, claimed they never actually said it was Duke Nukem. The url was also changed to nogumneeded.com, which now appears to redirect to the Bombshell website. And now they reveal this. I dunno, I can kinda see how that might've initially been conceived as a Duke Nukem title. Lol.

I mostly got it for the story mode since I've finally finished P4G and it's actually considered a canonical sequel to it. But I'm also really looking forward to playing an Arc System Works fighter again. I played a shit ton of the original BlazBlue a few years ago and loved the hell out of it but I never got around to grabbing any of the sequels. So that should be fun. Tracking says it should be getting here tomorrow, so I'll be able to play through it over the week-end while I wait for Transistor!

Persona 4 Golden. Jesus, these games are so fucking long! For some reason, I thought this one was shorter. I was 40 hours in when I put it aside after the holidays and when I picked it up again about a week ago I expected there was maybe 20-30 hours left, at most. Turns out it was more like 50. My clear save is close to 90 hours. Oh well, at least I didn't take 3 years to finish it this time... As far as the story goes, I think I liked P3 more. P4 is a better game overall but, while the murder-mystery plot was entertaining enough and did a good job of keeping things interesting, the resolution just wasn't as satisfying as P3's. And keep in mind, I left P3 unfinished for so long that by the time I actually beat that damn game I had no idea what the fuck was even going on anymore. Also, I did the true ending path and apparently that final dungeon wasn't in the original PS2 release. So, technically, I beat the original final boss a few days ago and that one kinda came outta nowhere. The bonus final dungeon gave it a bit more context but man, now I'm kinda glad I never got around to playing my PS2 copy. That ending would've been a massive letdown. As for the gameplay, it's mostly identical to P3 but with some key improvements here and there. Having direct control over party members makes a world of difference, I don't think I could go back to P3 now (although man, I'd be all over a native Vita port/remake of P3 similar to Golden). Also, at first I was disappointed that there wasn't a uber-dungeon like Tartarus but the dungeons felt a lot more varied and unique than the Tartarus blocks as a result, so I think the game was better off for it. Honestly, even if there wasn't still a bunch of games I want to play on Vita, I think this game alone would be enough for me to be happy with my purchase. It's just that good. Now bring on Persona 5 already! Also that dancing game. I'm totally getting that.