RPG Progress Report

[Betagam7]

I'm using a shrine to help me round up all the sub quests in Phantasia before I tackle the two big final areas before the last boss.

I've no idea how people found all this stuff back in the day without rage quitting at the random battles. I normally love big open ended worlds packed with secrets but that turns to completely the opposite for me in JRPG's flooded with random battles. It totally kills any sense of exploration for me and I find that the only tolerable thing to do is use a guide to see where I need to go next and max out the holy bottles.

I'm guessing I'll exceed the 50 hour mark by the time I finally put this one to bed, after playing Lufia 1 and this one in succession I don't think I'll be in the mood for a random encounter JRPG in some time!

[noiseredux]

Skyrim

DAY 4

I've decided to focus on a main quest and head towards the Greybeards. Although Skyrim has fast travel for places you've visited before, I decide against this. Sure I could have gotten myself much closer to my destination, but I feel like this world is so vast and interesting that ignoring it in favor of convenience is selling it short. It's only when forcing myself to just walk from A to B that I truly start to appreciate just how "open" this game is.

Along my way I kill a whole lot of wolves. I also see a couple of guys with swords harassing an unarmed lady. So I kill them. She then just walks away. I try to talk to her but she's not interested. I take off, and start snooping around the area. I then circle back to where those two guys were and... she's on her knees next to one just looking at him. It's such a weird moment. I thought I was helping her but she seems like she's mourning them. Again, I try to take to her but she just walks away from me quickly. Brilliant. This is complicated NPC stuff, even if it really means nothing. It's interesting.

The killing continues as me and Lydia take down a mammoth. I'll be honest, we just did it to see if we could. It wasn't fast nor easy, but we did it.

After a while I get to some water, and grow tired of these graphical glitches. So my next half hour is spent Googling - again - in search of a solution. I'd previously tried many mods and so-called fixes. But finally I found the answer in the Steam forums. Apparently this is a common issue with folks playing on either new Nvidia cards or monitors with refresh rates higher than 60 Hz. Or maybe both, I don't know. But a few tweaks of the Nvidia control panel finally made it so water and animals act normal. Cool.

We keep trecking and work our way up a mountain. We come across a troll or ogre or something and he's a total jerk. Hits super hard. I'm all out of arrows. I try to blast him with some fire magic, but it's just not enough. I eventually decide to look for a detour, and that works. We make our way up to the Greybeards and they teach me some new shout spells. Nice.

[MrPopo]

I've no idea how people found all this stuff back in the day without rage quitting at the random battles. I normally love big open ended worlds packed with secrets but that turns to completely the opposite for me in JRPG's flooded with random battles. It totally kills any sense of exploration for me and I find that the only tolerable thing to do is use a guide to see where I need to go next and max out the holy bottles.

I don't mind random battles if I like the battle system enough. I want my random battles to either be easy or engaging; many Final Fantasies are the former while Tales is the latter. What sucks are the battle systems where the balance is such that you have to pay attention because enemies have a bunch of bullshit attacks that do tons of damage, but it's still a loop of "use regular attack, then heal, then regular attack, then heal".

[noiseredux]

Skyrim

DAY 5

I am fairly certain I am officially hooked. One hour turns into three easily in this game.

After speaking to the Greybeards I set a marker on my map to go off and find some horn. (You should know I'm terrible with names of places, people and things in games). Like I said earlier, no fast travels. It's all about the journey here. I made my way down the mountain, once again choosing to bypass that troll. I took a very very scenic route to get from East Skyrim to North.

At one point I encountered another troll in the woods. I jumped into a river and crossed to the other side. Then I stood there on the bank and watched him stare me down from the other side. I had a hunch he couldn't swim, and he seemed annoyed that I figured that out.

Along the way I met a gentleman who was having a problem with a necromancer in his family's tomb. I felt bad and decided to give him a hand. He, Lydia and myself made quick dust of the living dead.

I made my way to the tomb where the Horn-thing was supposed to be. I probably spent a good hour in there, killing stuff and looting stuff and having a great time. Though one timing based puzzle annoyed me so I feel no shame in admitting that I just Googled how to no-clip and went through the doors before they closed so quickly. I just couldn't get the shout spell down to get through them fast enough. At the end of the dungeon, the horn wasn't there. The plot thickens. Back to that "Rivertown" place to see what's up.

I'm about 8 hours in now and am almost level 7.

[Betagam7]

I've no idea how people found all this stuff back in the day without rage quitting at the random battles. I normally love big open ended worlds packed with secrets but that turns to completely the opposite for me in JRPG's flooded with random battles. It totally kills any sense of exploration for me and I find that the only tolerable thing to do is use a guide to see where I need to go next and max out the holy bottles.

I don't mind random battles if I like the battle system enough. I want my random battles to either be easy or engaging; many Final Fantasies are the former while Tales is the latter. What sucks are the battle systems where the balance is such that you have to pay attention because enemies have a bunch of bullshit attacks that do tons of damage, but it's still a loop of "use regular attack, then heal, then regular attack, then heal".

It's simply the encounter rate that bothers me as opposed to their random nature. I feel like it's a cheap trick used to artificially extend the life of a game and belongs in the past (although in fairness I am playing a retro game) along with the unfair difficulty that games used to feel was a prerequisite due to their coin guzzling origins.

I like the sense of adventure and exploration in these games so it's irritating to have it hampered by boring interuptions which is exactly how I'd describe 90% of Phantasia's battles as very few of them reply on anything more than repeating the same combos while the AI casts random spells.

[pierrot]

I finished Densetsu no Ogre Battle, and am now into Linda Cube.

(Commence wall o' text.)

There are three scenarios that can be chosen from the start, and I believe there might be a fourth one that is unlocked at some point. I chose to start with Scenario A - Marry Xmas. I think I'm still pretty early on in this scenario, but it's intriguing, despite not being as weird as I had initially expected.
(The following is an example of the kinds of images the manual greats one with, and is only a taste of the insanity that I've seen in some promotional videos.)

WARNING: graphic

I think I know who that guy on the toilet is supposed to be, so if that scene is actually in the game, then, wow.

I'm going to be waxing on about story elements a bit. I don't know if there's anyone else who is really intending to play this game, ever, but there will probably be spoilers in this post.

So, the intro movie starts us off with one of the main characters, Ken, and his coworkers, in 'Neo-Kenya,' watching an old man in a ceremonial headdress and loin cloth beckoning a gift from god, which does appear in the form of a giant, wooden, ark that plummets to the earth in front of them, and is followed by a monolithic stone tablet, which appears to crush the old man. Finally, some engravings appear on the tablet, and is signed, 'from god.'

The basic premise is that there's a man-made meteor scheduled to hit the planet in approximately seven years, which is liable to wipe out all life there. The message from 'god' says to have one man and one woman gather a male and female of each species of animal on the planet, and load them into containment pods on the ark. The man and woman end up being the main characters Ken and Linda.

There's a prologue movie that shows Ken and Linda as children, talking about a forgotten planet, 'Earth,' and Linda says she thinks it would be a great place to go for a honeymoon. Ken scoffs at the idea of anyone wanting to take her on a honeymoon at all. She then tells him to find the planet, and while running off into her house, says that once he does, she'll be his bride.

Scenario A has a goal of collecting 30 pairs of different animal types, before the meteor hits the planet. So far I have 11, and I'm in the winter of 1991. (Meteor is set to hit in 1999.) In the beginning of the scenario, I mainly got to know some of the people around Ken: He appears to have been adopted, and was raised by his adoptive mother, after his adoptive father disappeared. I forgot what the organization he works for is called, but he's a part of what is essentially a slightly more militant group of park rangers, who are called on more and more to be peace keepers, but are mainly in charge of dealing with poachers, and maintaining the animal population. Ken's adoptive father was apparently the former head of this organization.

The first task in the game was to maintain Ken's noteworthy ability to be 30 minutes late for everything. Mission succeeded. Along the way I picked up a dog companion, named Yuki, from a little girl outside Ken's house. At the meeting, it comes to light that Linda has volunteered to gather animals for the ark, and it seems to be expected that Ken will be her partner. So, I acquiesced, but Linda is said to be ill-tempered, snotty, belligerent, not well liked, and just a general handful. Not to disappoint, she proceeds to sneak up on Ken and beat him over the head with a piece of wood, after the meeting, and mocks him for being a lower level than she is. No, really, she yells at him for being level 1 while she's level 2, literally. Anyway, she tells Ken not to show his face around her until he's at least level 3, which is coincidentally the exact level necessary for the plot to progress. (Linda is also in a bikini, on a pinup calendar, on the second floor of Ken's organization's HQ, but I have no idea how this is relevant--to anything.)

So, there are all kinds of things going on with the mechanics of this game. I collected some animals, and registered them with the ark in a very "organic" area, that makes moaning noises whenever I do so. What's interesting is that registering a male of some species will give Ken a boost of one point to each of his stats, and sometimes a combat skill that relates to the specific species, and the same thing for Linda, when a female of any species is registered. When in combat, the animals are sucked into a container thing that Ken wears, once they've stopped resisting, which usually happens when they get to zero HP, but can also happen when they get to critical health. EXP is only received for animals captured, and I don't know why it happens, but at times, enemies will hit zero HP, and their bodies just fly off into pieces.

Collected animals, if not registered in the ark, can be used to sell for cash, or to make into equipment and food. Weapons require ten males of a species, and armor requires two to five females of a species. Equipment can also be purchased from shops, but why would I now that I'm able to make things for free.

There are three overworld maps, and it seems I only have access to two of them for this scenario. The terrain, and sometimes animals, change with the seasons, which is a nice touch. I heard tell of some legendary animal that only appears in the most blinding snowstorms in the northern areas.

At any rate, Linda ended up in the hospital after losing her memory. It's not clear why. Once I hit level 3, everyone in her town disappeared, except for her. According to one of her nurses, she spends about five minutes, every time she washes her hands, cleaning under each fingernail, as if she were trying to clean them of blood. it's unclear to me whether or not Ken was actually Linda's fiance before this, or if he's just being railroaded into that status due to the circumstances, but when he's not being a good boyfriend, and visiting Linda, he's getting hit on by every woman with a pulse: I was in a research lab where one esteemed doctor works on talking plants, and after answering her 'survey' on favorite fruit, and being called a 'banana-boy,' she stops Ken as he's leaving, and asks for a goodbye kiss. I had the options of, 'With pleasure,' 'Yeah, yeah,' and 'No way!' I chose the most neutral. No idea if it matters, but she does it every time.

I'm working on getting some medicine to cure Linda's amnesia. Wouldn't you know the mega corporation was all out--wasn't profitable. I got the ingredients for it, after beating up some goats, though. Little bald creep, who was cleaning his bosses feet under her desk, says he'll have something ready for me in six months.

I also grabbed another dog; named her "Ai."

[noiseredux]

Skyrim

DAY 6

My copy of the Skyrim strategy guide showed up. It's gigantic. The map is included!

I spend a lot of time walking to my next destination. I'm heading to an Inn in the River-something town. After walking and exploring for like 20 minutes, the game crashes. I've heard of this happening - but it hadn't in my nine or so hours. That was annoying, so I totally fast-traveled to a nearby town cuz I just wasn't in the mood to start those 20 minutes over again.

I meet a woman named Delphine and she tells me a bunch of stuff about "Dragonborns." That's what I am by the way. She needs me to help her kill a dragon. I figure my chances are a little better with her and Lydia helping me, so I say "sure." We head off on our way - I follow Delphine. It's interesting to me how the AI treks. She sort of takes detours, stops and decides how she wants to proceed. It's well done. We make it to our destination and head across a bridge. There's some dudes that want to kill us - no problem. I take out two of them without realizing that another has come up behind me. He sneak-attack kills me. Jerk.

[alienjesus]

Persona 4 Golden:

I've made it to July in game and the summer break. I've just jumped into the TV world again to chase after some creepy looking nerd who has a video game themed dungeon. I like to try and push through dungeons in a handful of trips so that I don't waste in-game time, so I stopped there for now. Next time I play will probably be a dungeon crawling session.

[Exhuminator]

an old man in a ceremonial headdress and loin cloth beckoning a gift from god, which does appear in the form of a giant, wooden, ark that plummets to the earth in front of them, and is followed by a monolithic stone tablet, which appears to crush the old man. Finally, some engravings appear on the tablet, and is signed, 'from god.'

Amazing.

[pierrot]

Linda Cube time. (More spoilers imminent.)

I'm up to 24 pairs of animals of the requisite 30, plus two species that I only have the male or female of: the flea, and some amphibious creature.

I went searching through a tower, north of the hospital that Linda is recovering at, and eventually worked my way to a stairway to the basement, which had a teleportation panel that warped me to a room with two pods (like those on the ark) holding what appear to be some mythical creatures. They look a bit like winged demons, but I wasn't able to get them, as it seems I need something spherical to release them. Not sure what.

I got a call back from Vanheim (bald scientist working for Green Pharmaceuticals) and he told me to leave two inventory spaces open. I show up to greet Miss Elizabeth (president of the company) to find that I was 100% correct about Vanheim: That shrimp is diddling his boss' lady parts under the table, and the game was not subtle about it this time. He gave me the Memorin Z to help with Linda's condition, and some dude-pills for, "that." Supposedly they were very effective during testing on dogs.

After I take a shower to clean the scum of Green Pharma off of me, I get Ken to head back to Linda, but as he's leaving, Ken is stopped again by a somewhat familiar man in a santa costume, and a mask--Miss Elizabeth likes to have Christmas all year, it's not as weird as it sounds. He's stopped Ken once before, and told him to find Linda in room 102. This time he asks how the search is going, and provides a hint to, 'look in the backyard.'

So, that's a little ominous, and if it's unsettling to anyone, it should be. As Ken gets back to the hospital, he finds that Linda is gone from her hospital room. The nurse says that she was taken to the shed behind the hospital by the lead doctor, and Ken dressed as santa claus. I make haste to the little shed, which rumors have said is the hiding place of the town mayor of a, now, ghost town. As Ken peers into room 102, he's met with an image very similar to the one in the manual, and as I had suspected, the man on the toilet was indeed Ken's adoptive father. In a twist, the man in a santa outfit (Neck) is supposedly Ken's twin brother, who is irate that Ken isn't more pleased by the sight of his dead, runaway, father. After Ken avoids the situation by stepping out of the room, Neck plants the knife he used to run through his "father's" heart, and plants it in Linda's hand, as the Rangers stationed in the town rush into the underground facility.

Linda is put under surveillance for suspicions of murder, but allegedly broke out after stabbing the two guards in the heart. One of the Ranger guards was found naked, and Ken received a call a little later from his mother because she's been stashing a fugitive Linda, who she found sleeping on the bench swing outside their house. She's also not letting anything on about a twin brother, but Linda was in a santa outfit, so it appears that Ken now has to worry about a lunatic doppelganger.

The Ranger Chief bursts into the house to find Linda but actually helps Ken out by devising a plan to have Linda masquerade as a Ranger. I'm not so sure about this plan, but it seems to be working well so far. I've been taking Linda around to various places that might jar her memory, and the dialogue has been pretty spicy, and full of innuendo.

In other news, the pinup calendar in the Ranger HQ changed over with the new year, so now there's a picture of Sachiko (a nurse at the hospital who also lost her memory, like Linda) in a bikini, for 1992. Okay.

I have Linda in my party now, but she's still level 3 (!!). By contrast, Ken is now level 20. I keep finding out more things about the gameplay, as well. I've found some stores that will open up animals and give back the contents of their stomachs, which is well worth it. These animals eat some crazy, heavy, things. Also found a black market auction house that auctions off, illegally, rare and endangered species. Last, but not least, I've actually been getting transformations for Ken and Linda, by registering the different animal species. Different species contribute to certain transformations, and they appear to power up based on that. I haven't really used the transformations at all, yet, but it might be useful if I start getting into any boss fights.