toxicitizen

Our benevolent overlord Dean got me Shadowrun: Hong Kong and Her Story. Thanks a lot, man!

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below. Man, that is one stupid title. I love it. Anyway, I finished the main story last night. I went into this one having never played any "musou" games before. The genre itself seemed like it could make for some dumb button-mashing fun but I always thought the Dynasty Warrior series looked kinda boring. I never really felt any desire to give it a shot until they started slapping more interesting IPs on top of it, like Zelda or, in this case, Dragon Quest. Now, I'm not the most harcore DQ fan ever. DQVIII is the only one I played, although it's definitely one of my favorite JRPGs ever. I've been meaning to really get into the series for a long time now and Dragon Quest Heroes actually scratched that itch very nicely. It's not much of an RPG but it is a Dragon Quest game through and through. Akira Toriyama's art style, that wonderful orchestral soundtrack and even little details like sound effects are all lifted straight out of the series mainline entries. That alone was enough to sell me on the game right off the bat. It's just full of that Dragon Quest charm. But here's the thing, there's very little depth to the game. You're dumped into a map and slash away at large mobs of enemies. That's the extent of what you'll be doing most of the time. There's a bit of a tower defense twist to it, which is why some people insist this isn't a true musou or whatever but fuck that, it's close enough. In other words, it gets very repetitive and after 30+ hours even a little boring on its own. At that point, I started listening to podcasts while I was doing side-quests and the issue went away entirely. What you're doing is so simple that you can just turn down the sound, focus on whatever else you're listening to and mindless button mash your way through mobs of enemies. It's basically the perfect podcast game. Overall, I really enjoyed it. It might not be worth full price to everyone but I don't regret my pre-order one bit. I got close to 50 hours out of it and I'll most likely keep working on it on and off to finish all the post-game content and get all the achievements. If they end up localizing the sequel (and bringing it to PC), then I'll definitely be getting it. And even beyond that, it's made me even more eager to play some proper Dragon Quest. I've been looking into emulating the Super Famicom remake of the original with a translation patch and it seems to work pretty well. So, that should be fun.

Welp, I was gonna wait until after Christmas but my financial aid for next semester came in like a week earlier than usual so... I didn't want Smash but it was free as a soft bundle so meh. Kinda wish I'd been able to pick another game. I don't really care about the series, so I'll probably just sell it. Also had to get an AC adapter, because Nintendo are fucking morons, and EBGames annoyingly didn't seem to have the official one so I had to order it from Amazon instead.

Trying to decide between the Red and Black n3DS XL and I'm all like Why isn't the metallic blue one available in NA, damnit? Blue is always the best.

So, the idea of getting a 3DS has been floating in my head on and off all year. And, now that they finally announced that Dragon Quest VII and VIII are getting localized, of course it's back in full force. I was looking at prices on Amazon and spotted this for 30 bucks brand new. Finding an Atlus Limited Edition a year after release isn't that unusual but they're usually grossly overpriced. This one was actually cheaper than the regular edition. I figured it had to be a pricing error, so I ordered one expecting it to be cancelled. A week later, my card's been charged and there's a shipping notice in my inbox. Should be here tomorrow. I guess maybe Amazon found some leftover stock in their warehouse and wanted to unload it asap or something? Anyway, so, yeah, looks like I'll finally be getting that 3DS in the near future.

#BanCowboy

Dean, how about bringing back that dislike button?

Maybe in the future, if the studio truly is independent, but it really sounds like this first project is going to be a PS4 exclusive. Sucks but definitely a good catch for Sony. Now, come on, Sony. You know what the next move is: Get. Del. Toro.

Well, that didn't take long. Kojima founded a new independent studio and his first project is in partnership with Sony.

Couldn't resist. I love ASW's fighting games and the price was pretty reasonable, especially after the launch week discount. Also won this from a giveaway on NeoGAF Oh and the guy that made Hexcells has a new puzzle game out It's pretty good. Like a cross between Hexcells and Picross (or so I heard, I have no idea what Picross is). edit: Alright, now I need to stop buying shit until the christmas sale...

According to the big Steam package names leak of 2015, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster might be coming to Steam in the near future. https://steamdb.info/app/359870/subs/ I figured it eventually would but it's nice to have something concrete to suggest that it will. All the doubt and confusion surrounding possible Sony involvement/exclusivity was kind of annoying.

Sales were down on all platforms, though, weren't they? I'd like to think that Unity's horrendous state at launch also had something to do with it. Gamers tend to be stupid and quick to forget, but that was one monumental fuck up on Ubisoft's part.

I was kinda tempted but even at 40% off it's still almost 50 bucks over here. Fuck off with that shit, Ubi. I just bought Rogue and Unity, anyway, and still haven't played Black Flag. Being a few years behind on this series is actually kind of awesome. Also, it's kind of hilarious to see them giving it such a deep discount on Steam like 2 weeks after the PC launch. Looking at SteamSpy, it looks like it only sold about 40K units on Steam. That franchise fatigue...

Holy shit, the end of that gameplay video! O_O Please, please be awesome! I want this game to make up for Dark Souls II so bad.

Steam ID: FLD, wishlist, Canada General criteria: Nothing too specific, I have pretty varied tastes genre-wise and enjoy games both easy and challenging. My wishlist is fairly massive (and kind of a mess) but it's mostly in order of preference, so you can just go down the list ignoring anything that's too expensive and just pick something you think I'll like. I'll make sure to clean it up a bit and push some cheaper stuff to the top before the gifting starts, though. What are your favorite genres? Main ones would be stealth, turn-based strategy (specifically smaller unit/squad-based stuff like XCOM and Frozen Synapse) and survival-horror (think Resident Evil/The Evil Within rather than something like The Forest. Not really a fan of the "open-world with crafting" kinda survival games that have been flooding the PC market in recent years). I've also been in a bit of an RPG mood this year, mostly Japanese ones but Western ones are cool, too. What are your favorite games? Deus Ex, Thief, Splinter Cell, XCOM, Dark Souls, Trails series, Persona, Disgaea, Final Fantasy, etc. Are you looking for any non-Steam gifts? Not really. I pretty much ditched my PS3 at this point and I built a new PC earlier this year, so that's where basically all of my gaming is currently happening. Will you take games not on your wishlist? Yeah, of course, you shouldn't feel limited to what's on it. But keep in mind, I add pretty much anything that catches my eye to it, whether it's games I really want or just stuff that looks kinda cool. So, if something isn't on it, there might be a reason why.

Wait wait wait, what the fuck is this shit? Last year we gave crap to FMW for not changing back his spooky Halloween name. It's completely unfair to him if we don't do the same thing to madbassman! Get him, you guys!

Cold Steel I's script is about on par with FC and Cold Steel II is a bit smaller. XSEED have learned a lot from working on SC, so their workflow for the series has improved quite a bit and they pretty much have a series bible at this point. As a result, work on Cold Steel has been progressing much more smoothly (Cold Steel I took something like a year and a half from start to finish). Last I heard, the translators already started working on Cold Steel II a little while back. Not sure about the others, though. IIRC, 3rd is somewhere between FC and SC and either Zero or Ao (possibly both?) is even bigger than SC. edit: Alright, looks like Tom from XSEED revealed some more reliable figures at some point. Seems 3rd is the smallest out of the entire series at around 1m characters (FC is 1.5m and SC is a whopping 3-3.5m), so it wouldn't be too much work. The Crossbell games (Zero and Ao) are around 2m each. I was correct about Cold Steel, though. CS I is about the same as FC and CS II is a bit smaller. Turns out nothing really comes close to SC. Not sure where things stand exactly between XSEED and Carpe Fulgur but they seem to be on good terms, at least. Both XSEED folks and the CF guys were active in the OT for SC on GAF. As for Falcom themselves, from what I understand their involvement is limited to implementing the translated scripts XSEED send them and sending back a new build with fixes or whatever. I imagine they're fairly busy working on their new games and have little time to dedicate to their old ones. Apparently, the fact that XSEED were actually given the source code for the PC versions is kind of a big deal.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC. Well, it basically took me an entire month but I finally managed beat this monster of a JRPG late last night. Or, I guess technically this morning, a little after 5AM. Goddamn, this was good! It felt straight out of the SNES/PS1 golden era of JRPGs. I loved FC but, now that I've finally played SC, the whole thing definitely ranks among my all-time favorite JRPGs. It's definitely up there with Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, as far as I'm concerned. This felt like playing a lost classic, one of those games that made me love JRPGs in the first place. I can honestly say I hadn't played one like this in years. Unlike my replay of FC over the summer, I didn't really trouble myself with missable quests and achievements. My time was limited because of school and I knew this was a hell of a long game, so I prioritized getting through the story. I still made sure to do every side-quests I could find but ultimately it's impossible not to miss anything without a guide in these games. It ended up taking me about 70 hours (according to my save file) and I have no doubt a more thorough playthrough would easily take over 100. I'll definitely have to do a full replay at some point to clear everything but right now I simply didn't have the time. So, SC picks up right where FC left off. Literally the next morning, right after that evil cliffhanger ending. Much like FC, the first half of the game is undeniably slower. But unlike FC, this time it doesn't feel slow at all. The game still sends you on seemingly asinine jobs as part of the main quest early on but it almost always ends up tying back into the main plot in some direct and obvious way. The chapters are all shorter than in FC but there's twice as many of them and they all begin and end with cutscenes about the overall plot that keep you on the edge of your seat. If the experience of playing FC can be summed up as "Jesus Christ, is anything going to happen soon? Is this going anywhere?!" then SC is more like "Holy shit, that was awesome! Can't wait to see what happens next!" And that's just the first half of the game, which is admittedly a little formulaic. The second half just goes off the deep end in the best possible way. So, overall, it's an incredibly more engaging and satisfying experience than FC was. Mechanically speaking, there's honestly not a whole lot to discuss. It's essentially the same game as FC, other than a couple of small additions there's little to no gameplay changes or improvements. This isn't a sequel in the traditional sense, it's very much the last two thirds of the game. Now that they're both out, I really envy those that will be able to just grab both and marathon the shit out of them. It's gonna be one hell of an experience. So, there's a Trails in the Sky 3rd Chapter but SC very much concludes the story of Estelle and Joshua. On the one hand, it's great that we finally got the conclusion to the story that started in FC, and we've got Trails of Cold Steel coming soon(ish?), so there's that! But, on the other hand, considering the few plot threads that are left dangling, holy shit I want 3rd so bad. It's clear that a lot of the pieces here are being set up not just for the immediate sequels but for the Kiseki series as a whole. Especially considering that Zero/Ao and Cold Steel take place roughly simultaneously. This series was playing the long game right out of the gate. From what I understand, 3rd is less the third part of the Trails in the Sky trilogy and more of a spin-off that acts as a bridge towards the next two games, Zero and Ao. So, according to XSEED, committing to localizing 3rd means also committing to Zero and Ao. And they're understandably not quite ready to do that just yet. I really hope they can eventually justify doing them, though. So far, it looks like SC isn't doing too hot on Steam but this is the kind of game that is likely to have very long legs sales-wise. It's great that we're getting Cold Steel at all but it would really suck if we never get the missing 3 games.

Nah, the balance isn't fucked. This isn't like Ys where normal is on the easy side. According to folks on NeoGAF, normal is actually normal in SC and you're meant to play on that difficulty for your first time. Unlike FC, it's actually decently challenging. The first few pages of the OT actually have a bunch of folks mentioning picking hard and ending up starting over on normal. Oh and I've had bosses one shot my entire party even on normal.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have skipped over the combat system. I didn't mention it because it's serviceable but hardly noteworthy or exceptional. It's pretty standard JRPG stuff with Disgaea-like grid-based movement. But since you can't move and attack on the same turn, there's not an incredible amount of strategy involved beyond positioning and spell aiming. One thing I forgot to mention, though, is that the game kind of discourages grinding. Experience after battle is calculated on a per character basis, so characters lagging behind tend to catch up fairly quickly while overleveled characters will get next to nothing. So, the challenge is more about preparation rather than just brute forcing the numbers. For example, a boss in SC literally wiped out my entire party on the first turn. I had to reload and change my gear to protect my party against that specific type of attack.

Yes, you should! It definitely isn't generic anime garbage, although I can certainly see how it might look like it superficially. That being said, not everyone loves the game. It's a very slow burn of a game. It's so slow that the first act of the story gets its own game. Trails FC and SC were originally intended to be one gigantic game but at some point they had to cut it in two parts for technical reasons and the most logical point to do so story-wise was about a third of the way through. For the first three and a half (out of five) chapters of the first game, it feels like very little of consequence actually happens. That's not entirely true but things don't fall into place until later. It can be off-putting going in without knowing how slow-paced the game is. I know it was for me on my first playthrough. But when it gets good, it gets good. Also, the game more than makes up for its slow pace with outstanding character development and world building. This is an insanely detailed world with dense lore and tons of optional dialogue that foreshadows upcoming events and even plot points of future games! NPCs have their own individual lives and pretty much every single one of them will have something new to say whenever the story moves forward even a little bit. I mean, just look at the script books Needless to say, if you hate reading then this isn't the game for you. But if you value character development and world building then it's absolutely worth a look. Also, SC is much better in terms of pacing and feeling like stuff is actually happening, but you really can't just skip ahead to it. It's not a sequel, it's the last two thirds of the game. If FC is The Fellowship of the Ring, then SC is The Two Towers and The Return of the King rolled into one. If any of this sounds like something you might enjoy, well the first game is currently on sale for 10 bucks on Steam!

Lawyers aren't logical people, Cowboy. You're better off not trying to understand them. I mean, have you ever taken a look at bird law? That shit makes no sense!