What RPG are you playing right now?

[Exhuminator]

as there are so many of 'em

I'd just focus on the PS3 games initially. There are two trilogies on the PS3, which have games that are sequels to one another and tie-in together.

Arland Trilogy
Atelier Rorona (Plus): The Alchemist of Arland
Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland
Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland

Dusk Trilogy
Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk
Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky
Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea

I'd already beaten Rorona before starting Totori. I'm glad I played them in order, because there are a lot of callbacks to Rorona in Totori, including recurring characters. It's really cool how Gust put it together.

Also games with time management can really stress me out

Well, I won't lie, that's a big thing in the Atelier games. As long as you take care of your initial goal first, you can use spare time to goof around. It's not too tight, but you do have to pay attention and try.

I just want to make it clear these are very relaxing games to play. Just have a listen to Totori's OST while you browse the net:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvxCqYu ... gQt7QkXPOL

Lovely stuff.

[dunpeal2064]

Mana Khemia was my favorite Atelier game.

[laurenhiya21]

I'm curious how you'll do with Totori, Exhum. I got stuck on a late boss which I did eventually get past, but it took me so long to get the things I needed to barely beat it that I ran out of time and got the Bad End

For me it's frustrating to run into those sorts of spikes, so I'm curious if you run into that too (and probably deal with it better than I did haha) or if just playing better makes that boss much easier.

[Xeogred]

I think I can write off that franchise now then. Atelier is in your hands!

[pierrot]

So I promise that they WILL step up. But yeah, it does take some time and was an interesting idea that didn't have the best execution. I still need to finish the game; I'm in the last major section if I recall right but I ran into a boss I was not prepared for and then got distracted by other games.

I just really need the game to let me put the entire party together, already. The character's personal character deficiencies as heroes is something I could tolerate more, if I weren't being bounced around between so many subplots.

The Atelier series goes back quite a way, doesn't it? What kind of RPGs are they?

Bone explained the series fairly well, but I disagree with him about the quality. They are pretty similar to one another sure, but so is Tales Of, Dragon Quest, and Ys, and those series still have their stalwart fans. I suggest if you're interested, give one of them a try.

Here's a quick trailer for the one I'm playing now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOzTeJ51fko

There, uh... aren't a lot of clothes in that trailer Xp

What do you mean? All those dudes are totally covered.

I think the way that girl runs would irritate me way too much to ever give Totori a real chance. (I like the soundtrack Ex posted, though.)
Maybe some day I'll play Marie and Ellie.

[Exhuminator]

it took me so long to get the things I needed to barely beat it that I ran out of time and got the Bad End

Well, I may or may not fair better. We'll see!

On endings in general; I always take whatever ending I get in a game with no qualms. I happily accept it and just move on. I'm not going to re-beat a game just to get "the good ending", or do whatever nonsense it takes to get it. Instead, I just hop on over to Youtube and watch "the good ending" and call it done.

---

Xeogred, the Atelier series is not for you. I think I can safely say that.

---

I'd also like to say that the PS3 Atelier games are fairly unique compared to the PS2 ones. If you played a PS2 Atelier and wrote the series off, you might find the PS3 entries to be noticeably different.

[Xeogred]

Yep, no worries. Plenty of RPG's I still need to hit up... especially on the PS2. *wipes sweat*

[Kuruwin]

Third main mission done in Nioh. The gameplay mostly seems solid so far but the levels haven't been interesting and the third one was kinda boring. I also don't like the bosses because they seem to be really frustrating to do alone instead of being healthy challenge.

One complaint I have heard about Nioh is that some bosses take absolute ages to kill. What would differentiate a boss that's frustrating from one that's a healthy challenge?

Well the second main boss in the game is this vampire like lady that is really fast, can easily paralyze you if you fail to dodge her mist ball strike (she also can spam that attack in a row so you don't even have chance to dodge the second one) grabs you and sucks your blood which gives her health back and even her regular attacks can have paralyzing effect.

That boss battle is one of the hardest ones in the game and it happens so ridiculously early on that it kills the motivation. I don't think anyone would call Dark Souls tough but fair if O&S would be the first boss you face. Most people would give up right away if that was the case. So what i mean by healthy challenge is that the challenge builds up. You don't throw the hardest bosses at the beginning of the game and just expect the player to "git guud". It's ridicilous because all the bosses after certain point are a joke.

But anyways. If you know about the sloth talisman then almost every boss becomes a joke. It's a OP skill that makes enemies slow down for a while. The boss in question is one of the rare ones that still can kill you while slowned down if you aren't careful but it removes almost all the challenge from that battle. It feels like that spell was invented for people like me who got discouraged and didn't want to try anymore.

My tip for new players is that don't underestimate Onmyo spells. Even if you play melee class you should invest like 20-30 magic because there's some really good buffs to be gained.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Third main mission done in Nioh. The gameplay mostly seems solid so far but the levels haven't been interesting and the third one was kinda boring. I also don't like the bosses because they seem to be really frustrating to do alone instead of being healthy challenge.

One complaint I have heard about Nioh is that some bosses take absolute ages to kill. What would differentiate a boss that's frustrating from one that's a healthy challenge?

That boss battle is one of the hardest ones in the game and it happens so ridiculously early on that it kills the motivation. I don't think anyone would call Dark Souls tough but fair if O&S would be the first boss you face. Most people would give up right away if that was the case. So what i mean by healthy challenge is that the challenge builds up. You don't throw the hardest bosses at the beginning of the game and just expect the player to "git guud". It's ridicilous because all the bosses after certain point are a joke.

Oddly enough, heavily front-loaded difficulty is one of the most frequent complaints I've heard about Bloodborne, tbh.

--

I started up the Tales of Destiny remake on PS2 a few days ago, and I'm really enjoying it. I had no idea they were using the CC battle system so long ago! I thought it was a more recent innovation, given in the cluster I've played between Symphonia and Graces, only Graces used it. It's very fun getting back into that system, although a bit weird going back to a 2D Tales after so long since trying Eternia. It does remind me that these games basically NEVER have you sleep at inns, as you never have TP to recover, just HP. At least there don't seem to be inn-skits to miss though, which is nice. That always annoyed me in Graces

Digging the characters so far as well. REALLY raging at any localized content I read about though . Like, Woodrow's name is literally completely changed for some reason (the bloke with the bow you meet in the forest at the beginning). Sutan's name is localized as "Stahn," when I don't see why it isn't "Stan" (as that's how you'd spell Stan in Japanese). Then of all the characters' names to localize, Rutii's name is just Rutee in the English version! Madness!

[isiolia]

That Nioh boss more or less teaches you to explore. You can find an armor set and accessory with +paralyze that'll let you get hit by it more than once. If you just dash straight to the boss chamber, you'll miss all that.

I mean, she's still pretty cheap, and I think I just poked at her with a spear, but if you're looking at it from the early game teachable moments perspective, then it's the first thing that changing up gear for dramatically shifts things.