toxicitizen

*sigh*... digitally. I looked around and couldn't find a physical copy for less than 25 bucks with shipping. I would've been fine paying that much for it were it not for this PSN deal. Hard to justify paying 25 when you can get it for 9... edit: I was planning on waiting since it only comes out at the end of February, but there was a promo code on Gamefly for 25% off that ends on the 31st so I went for it. This one was kinda lucky. I had received 5$ of credit from Amazon for buying stuff back in december. It was only valid on specific Editor's Choice titles for January. Nothing interested me so I deleted the email and forgot about it. Then last night I was reading the Steam thread on Neogaf and found out Enslaved was added to the selection at the last minute. 7,49$ minus my credit, so it only cost me 2,49$. Pretty sweet deal for a game I really enjoyed on PS3. Now I'll finally get to play the DLC. It came bundled with Inversion but I can't say I'm too interested about that one.

Dark Souls. Holy shit, it feels good to finally make this post. What a game. I was kind of annoyed with myself when I stopped playing last fall. I started it fully intending to beat it but then I bought The Last of Us and then Blacklist and Arkham Origins and I got a Vita and after a couple months had passed it really started to feel like I'd just never get back to it. Really glad I did, though. I think it's easily one of my top games ever. For a while, I wasn't sure whether I liked Demon's Souls better or not. But now that's it over, I think Dark is definitely the superior one. Although that ending... Can't wait for Dark Souls II now. I kind of want to say I won't take so long to beat that one but I'm pretty sure I must have said the same damn thing about the first one so we'll just have to see. And, even though DSII is coming out soon, I really, really hope From does something about GFWL. I would hate to see the online side of the game die just because of Microsoft's piece of shit of a service.

What makes you say that? Does it not fit well when integrated with the campaign or something? I mean, I only played it as a standalone experience long after I played DXHR, but it wasn't bad at all. I certainly wouldn't call it garbage.

Final Fantasy sale on PSN. I've wanted this one since I got my Vita, I just wasn't willing to pay 20 bucks for it. I've started this one quite a few times over the years, and got pretty far into it a couple times, but I never finished it for some reason. I'm also really curious about that After Years sequel thing even though I heard it's not all that great. Not only have I never finished this one, I've never actually played it (if you still want Dean to ban me, Hot Heart, I think this is probably your best chance at convincing him ). I tried emulating it years ago but got stuck and lost interest like a couple hours in. I've beaten every mainline FF (excluding sequels and MMOs) from VI to XIII except for this one. Now I have no excuse not to play it. There's also FFXIII-2 for 9$ with the PS+ discount. It's very tempting but I'm on the fence since I'd much rather have a physical copy. Then again, I don't think I'd ever get a physical copy for 9 bucks...

Yeah, it's kind of awful. I figured since I got it for free I might as well play it for the easy platinum but I just couldn't be bothered to play more than the first episode after seeing the performance. I was thinking if it was good I might get season 2 for Vita instead of PC but I was not impressed.

Finally made it to Anor Londo today. Man, I had heard it was something else but holy shit, such a different vibe from everything else up to that point. I love this game so fucking much.

I assume that's physical? I had them on UMDs back when I owned a PSP but now I really wanna grab them for my Vita. I'd be all over a discounted double pack on PSN.

I drunkenly bought for 12 dollars. I'll probably regret it in the morning but right now it seems like the price I was waiting for.

Well, you guys made me want to do the same so I fired up Dark Souls this afternoon. Guess I wasn't under-leveled after all since I managed to make it through the first chunk of Sen's Fortress, up to a bonfire and boss. My damage on it seemed decent so I expect I'll be able to defeat it tonight, when I get back from class. Just pick a place that seems intriguing and go there. If it's too dangerous, go somewhere else. No need for a guide for that, really. The game is pretty good at subtly guiding you like that. If enemies one-shot you, that's a pretty good indicator you probably shouldn't be there. The only times I feel a guide is called for is for certain really useful items that you might otherwise miss.

Muramasa Rebirth. Finished the second campaign last night and man, I love this game. Some of its elements are kinda weak but the overall result is very much greater than the sum. The metroidvania aspect is really lacking. It's only there in the sense of the map structure. There's little actual exploration involved and you never get new abilities, just swords that allow you to break a different color of barriers. Backtracking gets a little annoying after a while and you only unlock warping for a character after beating the final boss the first time. The story is good but nothing particularly mind-blowing. It's cool that each character has a different story and starts on a different side of the map but when I finished the second one I was surprised by how there was ultimately very little that linked the two. At least, not in the first endings. When you get Kisuke's alternate ending, then there's a direct connection that's established. That one's my favorite ending by far. I still have the final (true?) endings to get but I still have a bunch more swords to forge before I can get those. The best parts were the setting, visuals, soundtrack and, to a lesser extent, the combat. The combat is very easy to learn but on Chaos difficulty there's definitely some skill that's required. It made for some very fun combat and in my 20 hours with the game I was never annoyed by the random encounters. Also, forging new blades is way more satisfying than you'd expect. Other than that, the game looks gorgeous and the soundtrack is a perfect match for the visuals. I love classical Japanese settings and this one was done so well that I'm kinda sad that it's over. I'll definitely be sticking with it a bit longer for the last endings, trophies and such. Then there's Fury mode, which brings back the autoblocking from Legend difficulty (Chaos doesn't have it so I'm not sure how useful it actually is) but only gives you 1HP. The masochist in me is very tempted to give it a shot. Then I'll have to get Dragon's Crown.

Well, I guess I was also in that early exploration phase but it really felt like I was under-leveled. Also, you mentioned the last couple bosses. Is Sen's Fortress really close to the end or something? If so, that'd be kind of a big motivator to make myself get back into it.

Yeah, I started it over last fall thinking I'd play it on and off and finish it before Dark Souls II came out. But DSII is right around the corner and I'm starting to realize that it's kind of a daunting game to just jump right back into. Especially since I had just reached Sen's Fortress and my last memories are of getting my ass absolutely kicked.

Muramasa Rebirth. I expected I'd be making this post in the games you beat thread since I finished Kisuke's campaign earlier tonight. But it turns out Momohime's has a completely different story and she starts on the opposite side of the map. Think she has different bosses, too. So I guess I'm only halfway through. That's pretty damn cool because I am loving the hell out of this game. If Vanillaware's games are all this good, I think they just became one of my favorite studios. I'll definitely be grabbing Dragon's Crown once I'm done with this one.

Grabbed the current Indie Gala. Most of it isn't really interesting but they just added if you beat the average. I paid 6 bucks. That didn't take long, kinda glad I didn't get it when it came out on Steam.

Yeah, when I first started looking into the series I didn't know which game went where. It gets confusing when they start remaking them and dropping the numerals. Also, it seems Falcom have been considering doing either Ys 8 or a remake of Ys V as their next project. http://www.siliconera.com/2012/09/18/next-ys-game-could-be-ys-eight-or-an-ys-v-remake/ I kinda hope it's the latter, personally. Now that Celceta is out, Ys V is the only one that was never localized, I think.

Hahaha, man you're missing out. Oath in Felghana is a remake of Ys III. It's on Steam if you're curious. They're up to Ys Seven now, which was a PSP exclusive in most regions. The most recent release (a couple months ago) was a remake of Ys IV for the Vita.

Yeah, the only way I could see any kind of similarities would be if you were to add the attack button to Ys I & II, what with the top-down view and sprite graphics. That might feel a bit like Link to the Past. But beyond that, I don't really see it. The Zelda series never really registered as RPGs for me. More like action adventure with puzzles, I guess?

How do you mean? Old Zelda? I haven't played anything past Wind Waker so I can't comment on recent games. But the overall game structure of Ys is different and the gameplay doesn't feel all that similar either to me. More of a traditional RPG with brawler-like combat.

For Vita but they're cross-buy anyway. Also because I hate having money, apparently. Oh and a couple days ago I remembered that this is a thing and that I still needed to play it There's other discounted PSP games outside the main sale. I was kinda tempted by a couple of niche Japanese SRPGs but I figured I already have enough as it is.

Pretty good sale starts tomorrow on PSN and lasts for a week. http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/01/13/14-for-14-sale-starts-tomorrow-huge-discounts-on-ps3-vita-games/ Applies to select PS3 and Vita titles only but the selection is pretty good and the deals are great if you're a PS+ subscriber. I've been wanting to get Stealth Inc. and Lone Survivor on Vita and I was holding off in hope of just this kind of deals. Never expected to get them both at once, though. Also kinda tempted to get Peace Walker just for the hell of it. I couldn't get into the HD version for some reason.

How's the performance on the PS3 version? I wanted to get it when it came out but I heard it had some issues. It's like 20 bucks now, though, so if it's not too bad I just might still bite. On topic, I started playing Dissidia Final Fantasy today. It's one of those games I bought digitally when I still owned a PSP but never got around to actually playing. Figured I might as well start knocking those off the backlog before the same thing happens again. After a few hours, I'm not sure how much I like it. The story is nonsensical garbage, even by FF standards. And this is coming from someone who still liked FFVIII despite the utterly moronic plot twist. It's still entertaining enough, I guess. I mean, it's not like I had high expectations to begin with. Then there's the gameplay. It's definitely fun but fights randomly seem to go from over in 10 seconds to "WHAT THE FUCK HOW DID HE EVEN DO THAT WHY AM I NOT DEALING DAMAGE?!?". I'm talking wanting to hurl my Vita at the wall levels of infuriating. A big part of it I think is because the combat system is so convoluted that you don't really understand what the hell you're even doing wrong or why things aren't doing what you expect them to. It's simple enough to get a good grasp on the basic core mechanics but every now and then a fight will feel so unfair and broken that it feels like either the game is cheating or there's something fundamental you're not getting. There's definitely potential for me to love the game but at this point it's still uncertain whether or not I will.

Ys: The Oath in Felghana. As expected, it pretty much blows the first two out of the water. The addition of an attack button makes the combat much more satisfying but everything else is essentially the same. The improved presentation and story were quite welcome. One thing I wasn't a fan of was the addition of jumping. Slashing at flying enemies is always annoying and the platforming was terrible most of the time. So, the Vita one is next, Memories of Celceta. Looking forward to that one but I'm not gonna get it right away. Think I'll take a bit of a break from the series and play something else for now. Playing two of them in a row made it feel a bit repetitive near the end of OiF.

I don't know, the Vita is pretty flat and has its own buttons and sticks. Carrying an actual extra controller around for a touch device isn't something I'd personally be inclined to do. Shit, I don't even carry a wireless mouse for my laptop. I wouldn't expect new releases like that, tbh. At least not as part of a streaming subscription. It wouldn't make financial sense. Why pay 60$ when you can just sub for a month and play the entire thing? The only way this would work would be individual purchases like Onlive did. And we all know how well that went for them.