RPG Progress Report

[Michi]

Dungeon Travelers 2: Just beat the midboss in the Wrappl Temple (at least, I think that's what it's called ). Took me a long while to get to her though since this dungeon is incredibly confusing. So many holes and one way doors and invisible walls and ahhhhh

See, that's the point I'd just look up a map. My gaming time is valuable, damn it, and it doesn't like to be foiled by trick doors and forced to go through the same room a dozen+ times.

[laurenhiya21]

Dungeon Travelers 2: Just beat the midboss in the Wrappl Temple (at least, I think that's what it's called ). Took me a long while to get to her though since this dungeon is incredibly confusing. So many holes and one way doors and invisible walls and ahhhhh

See, that's the point I'd just look up a map. My gaming time is valuable, damn it, and it doesn't like to be foiled by trick doors and forced to go through the same room a dozen+ times.

Well I guess what I meant more is that it's confusing to get around, even with a map. I would just show you the map but since I can't find it... I'll have to try and explain it

The confusing part about getting around the dungeon is how you need to fall down a hole or two to get to the midboss, but where the holes send you aren't shown on the map. So I have to flip between the floors trying to figure out where I'll end up. I mean that sounds easy enough to do, but I think the floor maps don't line up or something since I have to find a nearby ladder to use as a landmark and count the squares to figure it out

So yeah that's kind of annoying, but I actually don't mind it that much for some reason. Just takes me a bit to figure it out.

[Sload Soap]

Was going to get back into Alpha Protocol after my Forza binge but my save file is corrupted somehow. Must have switched the 360 off as it autosaved? I dunno haven't had a broken save file since Xcom. Actually I did have busted files in both New Vegas and Kotor2 so it's Obsidian tradition.

Got as far as doing some stuff in Taiwan, not super far in but unlike Xcom it's not really good enough to start over. So I went back to the patented "Sloady RPG selector" and drew out Final Fantasy 8. Yay?

[Exhuminator]

Phew... got my ass kick in Valkyrie Profile 2 last night.

After going back and clearing Ancient Forest, Turgen Mine, and the Sahma Desert, I soldiered on to the Surts Volcano Caverns. And the Volcano area feels like the game has taken the kid gloves off and bitchslapped me in the face with them. I made it through all of the puzzly shenanigans and enemy leaders with ridiculous amounts of HP. But then I had to fight the boss.

The boss (Evolver) being a creature made of out rock and lava. Who's first form I only just barely beat, then found out that it has, yes, a second much harder form. I was annihilated, and felt like I am indeed missing some crucial gear, or specials, or who knows what. This game has some really complex subsystems (it's a tri-Ace jam after all), and I'm going to have to master them a bit better, since I don't want to trawl a walkthrough for tips.

Here's somebody fighting that same boss I did last night:



Although they did a bit better than I.

[Sarge]

If you need to do any grinding, if you've already hit the Hydra boss, that's the best place to beef up. That's what I did, anyway.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Haven't made any progress in Deep Dungeon II since my last post, but I noticed something on the back of the game box that made me chuckle:
http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/ ... -cover.jpg
All four screenshots were taken within about a five minute span. Hell, two of them were taken about thirty seconds apart. Lazy mofos.

[Exhuminator]

Have you guys ever had a night where a boss fight defeated you, then you spent time the next day planning out a new strategy, and the following night you soundly defeated the boss using it? Yeah, I had that situation occur last night. I defeated Evolver handily on my first try, despite having lost to it three times over the prior evening. Tactics ftw.

[Sarge]

Yeah, it feels good. I have vivid memories of having this happen in Front Mission 4 against a certain boss, getting my head handed to me a few times, then stepping away for a while. When I came back, I had a better strategy in place, and absolutely decimated that battle. Good job!

[Exhuminator]

Thanks man, I've been pleasantly surprised at the consistent challenge that VP2 offers. I'm probably missing out on some sweet gear or special skills by avoiding strategy guides, but so far I've managed to get by. More folks should play this one.

[Ack]

Grim Dawn

Since it was officially released yesterday, my weekly Steam group decided to go back to Grim Dawn for a new run. We played it in a beta build about a year ago, so it seemed the perfect chance to see what all had changed.

Quite a bit, actually. Not only has everything been entirely rebalanced, but entirely new systems were implemented, such as the Devotion system where you must cleanse shrines and then assign points to a constellation-based grid for individual character bonuses. There are also entire character classes that didn't exist the last time I played, so for fun I decided to try a hybrid of one class that was in when I was playing, and one class that was new: the shaman. Holy crap, the shaman is a powerful hombre. Wanna go offensive? He's got tools for that. Wanna go caster? He's got you covered. Wanna use pets? Yep, they're there too. This dude is a hoss. I'm now using what's called a Warder(hybird class of shaman and soldier), and I'm going toe to toe with things that can two shot my fellow party members. Sure, I'm not fancy; there really isn't anything I can do besides walk up and hit things. But I can endure. I've basically created a tortoise: big, lumbering, with a tough shell to crack.

My combat strategy is now to simply outlast my opponents while wading through their hordes to kill the nastiest of them first. A caster back behind everyone? No worries, I'll just walk over there and smite the dude while everything else struggles to try and pull me down. Buddies pulling aggro? Hey, I just lean over and swat something as they try to run past me. I went mano y mano against one of the nastiest early bosses in the game for a good chunk of the fight before the rest of the party arrived, and even then I stayed right up on him. Good times.

I'm liking the official Grim Dawn so far. It's been good times.