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Still playing Ys Seven....... the amount of time I can dedicate to gaming has gone waaay down now that I'm a university student again. I'm about 22 hours in.

Ys IV (both versions) and V should be arriving in my mailbox within a couple of weeks. Should be a fun summer.

Lunar. Looks amazing in HD on PS3.

So I started up Diablo III (thanks Stark!) My thoughts:

This game is essentially the DotA archetype rising like an ouroboros and eating its action-RPG roots whole. So, I'll be playing it like a fiend, but I can certainly see why it's pissing a lot of people off. There's an overwhelming feeling of "Ten years for this?" but this type of game hits all my buttons so I'm loving it. One of the early quests is titled "The Legacy of Cain" which I thought was cute. I didn't watch a single preview outside the announcement trailer, so sorry if none of that is new.

Maybe it's because I'm playing Witch Doctor, but I don't see the point in equipping different weapons with different stat bonuses if the effects are entirely superficial since I never actually use them. Besides, why would I want a lame-ass club when I'm throwing jars of spiders at my foes?

This game is also the antithesis of Demon's Souls at this difficulty (the only one available in the trial mode). I could have invincibility and infinite mana for all the difference it would make.

I didn't let the game completely finish downloading before launching and it made the cutscenes unwatchable. So, do that.

sabrage wrote:This game is essentially the DotA archetype rising like an ouroboros and eating its action-RPG roots whole.

o_O

Maybe it's because I'm playing Witch Doctor, but I don't see the point in equipping different weapons with different stat bonuses if the effects are entirely superficial since I never actually use them. Besides, why would I want a lame-ass club when I'm throwing jars of spiders at my foes?

Weapon damage per hit directly affects the damage of your skills, and attack speed affects cast speed. Stat bonuses are a modifier on top of that. The difference between equipping a hand crossbow (1.6 attacks/second) and a crossbow (1.0 attacks/second) is huge for how a DH plays. That said, if you have two weapons with identical damage ranges, attack speeds, and stat bonuses, then the difference between the two is essentially cosmetic (with the notable exception of most DH skills requiring a ranged weapon).

This game is also the antithesis of Demon's Souls at this difficulty (the only one available in the trial mode). I could have invincibility and infinite mana for all the difference it would make.

It gets harder in normal mode, but you don't get ball crushing difficulty until you get into the later modes. But that's to be expected.

I bought it and enjoyed what I dabbed into as well. In a weird sense, it reminds me of Xenoblade. Mindless killing, click click click, but it hits the right notes and I love both.

I can't stand not being able to wheel/zoom in and out though. The zoom in angle is just awkward so that doesn't help either. But oh well, over it.

Xeogred wrote:I bought it and enjoyed what I dabbed into as well. In a weird sense, it reminds me of Xenoblade. Mindless killing, click click click, but it hits the right notes and I love both.

I can't stand not being able to wheel/zoom in and out though. The zoom in angle is just awkward so that doesn't help either. But oh well, over it.

Z for zoom.

MrPopo wrote:

sabrage wrote:This game is essentially the DotA archetype rising like an ouroboros and eating its action-RPG roots whole.

o_O

Yes, I recognize that dota started as a Warcraft 3 mod, but it plays nothing like a true RTS. If your vague response is suggesting a lack of similarities, I don't even know where to begin.

Some of the dungeons in this game are huge.

Finished the trial mode. I can't say it really left me satisfied, but it did make me want more. Gaming's equivalent of heroin.

sabrage wrote:

MrPopo wrote:

sabrage wrote:This game is essentially the DotA archetype rising like an ouroboros and eating its action-RPG roots whole.

o_O

Yes, I recognize that dota started as a Warcraft 3 mod, but it plays nothing like a true RTS. If your vague response is suggesting a lack of similarities, I don't even know where to begin.

Some of the dungeons in this game are huge.

My response was more "I have no idea what you just said". Diablo didn't really have action RPG roots. It has roguelike roots, and the original was even complete with grid-based movement so you could effectively use blocking to deal with packs of mobs. Diablo II amped up the speed quite a bit, and Diablo III plays like how Diablo II did once you had decent skills and the gear to let you spam them.

MrPopo wrote:My response was more "I have no idea what you just said". Diablo didn't really have action RPG roots. It has roguelike roots, and the original was even complete with grid-based movement so you could effectively use blocking to deal with packs of mobs. Diablo II amped up the speed quite a bit, and Diablo III plays like how Diablo II did once you had decent skills and the gear to let you spam them.

I wasn't suggesting that Diablo was directly evolved from ARPGs (how many were there even in 1996?) but you came around to the general conceit of my argument near the end: Blizzard has sped up and streamlined the interface and systems similar to DotA-style games, which I've always considered to be mini-ARPGs in a competitive environment anyways.

I'm trying to get through Xenoblade but the story just isn't holding me and I'm not too enamored by the gameplay. I do think it's a great game but I dunno, I just put it down after an hour or so every time my past few runs. The story doesn't have the "wtf-ness" that the Xeno games need.

I think I'm gonna give Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne or Digital Devil Saga a run...