CoN 25th Anniversary: 1997-2022
What games are you playing at the moment?

Posted: 9th September 2020 02:54

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Magitek Soldier
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I'm in the beginning of chapter 4 of Final Fantasy VII Remake, which I borrowed from the library as I didn't want to spend my precious money on a remake of a game I didn't particularly care for, but was still curious to see if the remake would win me over.

First, I've got to say that I don't hate the original Final Fantasy VII, but I found the story very confusing and didn't understand what all the hype was about. So I hoped the remake would be better, given that they have more room to flesh out the story.

So far, I think the remake is living up to that potential. I haven't been confused by anything (yet), and greatly appreciated the bonus backstory for Jessie, who I have become quite smitten with.

I did have an issue with the difficulty of the "normal" battle system. I strongly feel that first bosses should not be insanely hard. Well, I ran out of healing items before I even got the boss halfway. I'm sure plenty of folks enjoyed the challenge and there's probably some reading this saying "git gud" but since I play RPGs for the story, I started over the next day on Classic, and don't regret it (though it's almost *too* easy).

I tried playing the original when Remake came out, but bounced off it when I hit Wall Market. We'll see if I stick with the remake but so far I don't see why I wouldn't.

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Watch me play games on Twitch!
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Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV MSQ & Side Quests
7:30pm - 10:30pm Central or thereabouts
Post #216279
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Posted: 29th September 2020 04:29

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Magitek Soldier
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Well, I returned FFVIIR to the library with the rest of the game unplayed.

I had some interesting conversations with my therapist and a dear friend about my gaming choices. I felt some guilt at not playing FFVIIR (I was raised Catholic, we excel at guilt) because I kept choosing instead to play my open-ended games: Final Fantasy XIV, Brave Exvius, and War of the Visions:FFBE.

I thought it was FOMO that was causing me to play those games, because there's always new short-term events happening in them. War of the Visions was doing a FFT event; I have still to play Tactics but I'm familiar with the characters so was hyped for that event and spent a lot of time grinding it. FFXIV had another phase of the Ishgard Restoration going on; it's an excellent way to level crafters plus all my friends were participating so I wanted in, as well.

But my therapist asked if it was really FOMO and not the fact that I really love those kinds of games, and she's right. I do. I actually love to grind! I have a safe file in FFV where I leveled ALL THE JOBS and I had a blast doing it.

And my dear friend pointed out that new things are hard and scary, and this can be true of even video games. Now, I have played the original FFVII so am familiar with it:a story, but that was over TEN years ago so I've forgotten a lot, plus the remake is a new experience with added story to it, so... Yeah. And my therapist also asked if maybe a hadn't wanted to play the Remake because I felt I had to due to the library due date, and there was definitely a lot of that happening too.

I'm under some considerable stress right now, so it's no surprise I'm turning to the comfortable and familiar. I won't even do new MSQ or roulettes in XIV; instead I am leveling jobs on my catboy by doing FATEs.

Finally, I just bought a Switch! I am happily playing Picross on it, as that is relaxing for me and familiar. I also picked up BOTW, FF X/X-2, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. After Picross I might play FfCC; it's a new game for me but I think it won't be too stressful, plus it would be fun to do dungeons with my friends.

I do intend to borrow FFVIIR again, but it will likely be some time before I do, since I have the Switch to play with now.

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Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays & Thursdays: Final Fantasy XVI
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV MSQ & Side Quests
7:30pm - 10:30pm Central or thereabouts
Post #216303
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Posted: 29th September 2020 06:29

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Maniacal Clown
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I think to some extent the idea of picking up a game that you know is gonna be a huge thing just registers differently from picking up a game whose length you don't know at all.

There's just something in the mind that goes through the thought of "what else could I be doing with this time?" or "what other little things should I get done before I can finally sit down to enjoy this?".

Grinding a game requires less mental activity/commitment than starting a whole new story that we want to be invested in.

It was easier when we were younger because we didn't actually know what we were getting into.

--------------------
current games (2024-02-19):
Fairy Fencer F ADF
Pokémon Perfect Crystal

finished so far this year:
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
TMNT 3: Radical Rescue

tabled: Lost Ruins
Post #216305
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Posted: 6th October 2020 07:14
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Behemoth
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Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
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Herner Werzog: Zero Day somehow got its hooks into me deep son! After beating the main game, I started NG+ immediately after and now I'm at the end of that game! It really doesn't change the game as much as you'd think, even on a harder difficulty...and yet, it doesn't become any less fun. Go figure.

user posted image

The only other game I've played recently is EA's Star Wars: Squadrons and boooooy howdy is it some bullshit!

...the EA part of the game. The rest is baller! Well...kind of.

Okay, I have PSVR and I don't know about anyone else, but for me, it makes aaaaaaall the difference! It is simply indescribable the feeling of flying around in an a-wing you debris/asteroids/starships as you get a better angle on a target that you can follow when they scream past the front of your ship because ya kin just tilt yer head up to see where theys headed! It is wild man...so long as you adjust the controls appropriately.

I dunno about any of y'all, but as a man of 90's flight sims, having the game setup one analogue stick to be both the throttle and the roll for your ship? Who does that?! Who in their right mind thinks that's even remote--

user posted image

Anyway, it's not a very robust game. It's story is...acceptable so far. I don't care about it honestly, I'm just here for the flying, but the missions are fine enough, if overly scripted for my sim tastes. They just don't have the scope of the OG X-Wing series. As for multiplayer? There's just two modes. A scrappy deathmatch and it's fleet mode, which would prolly be a lot more fun with peeps willing to co-op rather than the randos I've been with so far. Still...only two modes. Only four craft to fly for each faction and apparently...they aint adding anything else.

user posted image

That's...I don't get it. It's a fun game to play and its one of two games I know that doesn't make VR look like it'll only have shovelware for a library, but its waaaay too bare bones, even at only $40.

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Post #216310
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Posted: 6th October 2020 08:23

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SOLDIER
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Yes, I've been playing Squadrons as well. Mostly I've been enjoying the ranked fleet mode online, it is a lot of fun but as you say, quite bare bones. A little more content would definitely be appreciated.
I do have a PSVR headset but so far I've just been playing it on the TV. I've really no excuse for my behaviour, I'll try to play it as intended in the next couple of days. Maybe.

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'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'
Post #216311
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Posted: 12th October 2020 01:20

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Chimera
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Since I last posted in this thread, I've played (or at least tried to play) a number of different games, most notably FF12: The Zodiac Age, and all three Trails in the Sky games. Gotta say, the Trails games really scratched my tactical rpg itch, and I already got the Cold Steel series ready to go in my GOG account. For now, though, I'm still on my FF12 ZA playthrough.

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Post #216317
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Posted: 14th October 2020 20:03

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Maniacal Clown
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> GOG

I gotta say I definitely love how Falcom (i.e. the devs of the Legend of Heroes games) are very friendly to DRM-free gaming.

Compare other publishers. Sega still hasn't taken Denuvo off Shining Resonance Refrain yet, even though that's on Steam. And since you mentioned FFXII in another thread, I think that's another PC game on Steam that's also got Denuvo. Because apparently Steam itself isn't enough DRM.

Anyhow, I've lately restarted playing Jeanne d'Arc. It's an SRPG on PSP by Level-5 (better known for the Professor Layton and Yo-kai Watch series) and published by Sony. I'm approaching halfway through the game.

Coincidentially, a friend of mine happens to be doing a playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics as well, with friend-submitted character builds, streaming once a week. In her playthrough, I'm represented by a female geomancer named Rayne (after Rayne Lindwurm of eXceed 3rd), who also has some white magic abilities as backup. Though I might ask her to do Oracle for a bit since that would be more effective against a certain antagonist with an easily-spammed HP-draining attack.

Comparing FFT, FFTA (which I played years ago), Fire Emblem VII (which I also played years ago), and Jeanne d'Arc is rather interesting. For example:

Non-story battles:
FFT - random battles
FFTA - roaming clans appear on map
FE7 - no non-story battles (except maybe in the coliseum?)
JdA - can engage in free battles anytime. free battles become available on past battlefields like two chapters after they're first revealed.

Character class, mandatory characters, and generics:
FFT - class changes available. Story characters have special starting classes. Generics can be recruited at recruiting offices.
FFTA - class changes available for most characters. Generics will join randomly.
FE7 - class advancement only. No generics.
JdA - class changes not available, but class is defined by weapon specialization; spells can be used by anyone. More like a typical JRPG in that there are no "generics", just a variety of side characters of various classes, most of whom you can choose from during battles. (Story battles mandatorily involve certain characters, of course.) Occasional temporary transformations may be possible.

Can characters do "backup" things albeit more weakly? (e.g. a healer using their staff to attack an enemy, or a physical fighter casting a magic spell, albeit to less effectiveness)
FFT, FFTA - allow outright mixing of abilities from different classes
FE7 - none at all. (Makes grinding certain characters difficult...)
JdA - Magic spells can be equipped on anyone. (Backup ranged attacks turned out to be critically useful for me in one of the story battles!)

Delayed magic spell activation:
FFT - yes
FFTA, FE7, JdA - no

Option to face direction:
FFT, FFTA - choose direction faced at end of turn.
FE7 - direction faced doesn't matter.
JdA - can't choose unless you picked Wait that turn. (If you choose a self-targeting spell, you can kinda do it too, but you have to do it via moving the cursor while targeting the spell.)

Preview move with following action?
FFT - No; you need to separately confirm movement actions, and you can't preview actions following them before you commit to them.
FFTA - IIRC you can.
FE7, JdA - you can.

Move after action?
FFT - yes
FFTA - yes, IIRC
FE7, JdA - no

Permadeath?
FFT - only if you let someone's death counter expire during a battle
FFTA - only in judgeless areas
FE7 - yes
JdA - no (though you may lose the scenario if certain characters fall)

Fallen units:
FFT - disappear after permadeath
FFTA - don't disappear; can't be stopped on
FE7, JdA - disappear immediately

Individual or team turns:
FFT, FFTA - individual character turns
FE7, JdA - team turns; move individual characters in any order during team turn

MP:
FFT - starts off full and doesn't regenerate.
FFTA - starts off full and regenerates (a fixed amount per turn?). This can lead to some broken combos, so I hear it was changed to start off empty and regenerate in FFTA2.
FE7 - no MP mechanic
JdA - starts off empty and regenerates; regeneration rate varies by character (based on max MP, I think).

Turn limits:
FFT, FFTA - I don't think they do, generally.
FE7 - I don't think this does either but I can't remember for sure.
JdA - definitely has them.

At some point I'll play Rime Berta (a doujin SRPG for PC) and I'll be able to add another set of comparisons.

Edit: OH I SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED ENERGY BREAKER but i forgot so many of the details... I do remember that it has turn limits, which can be very nasty because losing HP means losing action points and debuffs means your actions are far less effective. It also has facing mechanics.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 14th October 2020 21:18

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current games (2024-02-19):
Fairy Fencer F ADF
Pokémon Perfect Crystal

finished so far this year:
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
TMNT 3: Radical Rescue

tabled: Lost Ruins
Post #216318
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Posted: 15th October 2020 20:12
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Behemoth
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Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
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So there's two games I'm maining right now...with the occasional side-chick. The side chick's Horizon, which I've said all I've had to say.

The two mains are Squadrons and DOOM 2016. Mostly been doom'n at the moment. I died doing what I presume is the final story mission in Squadrons and I haven't gone back yet. I suppose because finishing the story mission means all I have left is the two MP modes and I don't like the idea of grinding my way through pub matches w/ randos to accomplish absolutely nothing. That leaves...the D.

I dropped this game when it first came out back in '16. I had spent a full hour scouring the fourth map for the hidden lever that opens up the classic doom map. Rage quit when I found out I'd have to restart the entire map because I'd reached a point that locks you out from backtracking.

Well I recently upgraded my computer, so I reinstalled and gave it another shot. I'm not one level away from the completion. I still don't like the way it locks out backtracking at certain points and the checkpoint system in general...but I got over it.

user posted image

This game rips! AND tears! It's very much an almost VR experience in the sense that it shouldn't be played for extended periods of time. The near constant drip-feed of pure adrenaline it pumps into your body can almost make you feel queasy. They know it too, because you get the option to save and quit at the end of every map.

But the key I found to happiness with this game was two fold. The first was to explore. It's almost required to find all the secrets simply because that's how you get the money to buy the upgrades to your weapon mods. And you want what they giving! I was basically carried through the early game on the shotgun's grenade launcher and the machine gun's missile attachment...then I found the Gauss Canon with the siege mode upgrade! It literally OSKs every enemy except the Mancubus and Barons...which are TSKs! Civvie was right! It is broken and I love it!

Unfortunately Super Bunnyhop is right too. This game gives you a lot of chores to do when you're playing it...literally. Every weapon upgrade's final upgrade has to be unlocked by doing 'x' an 'x' amount of times...same for your rune upgrades. Hell, every new map starts with a list of three different stunts for you to pull off. It can get plenty annoying, but surprisingly enough I found I'd accomplish a lot of 'em just by playing the game regularly and thankfully when you restart a map - or even just a checkpoint - it keeps all the 'x' things you've done, so it's not a hassle to get them cleared out. And at the very least, doing them all makes nigh on invincible!

This post has been edited by Narratorway on 15th October 2020 20:18

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Post #216320
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Posted: 26th October 2020 04:26

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Magitek Soldier
Posts: 339

Joined: 25/1/2014

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Member of more than five years. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. 
So I finished the main part of Final Fantasy XIV:Stormblood way back in August. I got distracted from story for a few months. First it was the Yo-Kai Watch special event sucking up my time, then came another round of the Ishgard Restoration, which is a perfect way to level crafting jobs (I got all mine to 70).

I probably would still have been shying away from story if new housing areas hadn't opened, and darn it, I decided I really wanted an apartment for my catboy. To qualify for housing, though, you need to reach a high rank in your Grand Company, which not only requires hunting logs to be filled but also has some quests involving dungeons. I hadn't done dungeons in a while due to social anxiety, but I WANTED THAT APARTMENT so I summoned the courage and knocked the two dungeons out one night.

I survived, and it wasn't that terrible, so I decided to plunge back into story on my main character. That was about two weeks ago., I think? Time is a blur these days. Anyway, as of tonight I have finished the post-Stormblood story and will be starting Shadowbringers in the next few days, hurray!

No spoilers from me, other than to say my social anxiety greatly appreciated that there were less dungeons to do and more solo duties. I had also been pretty sure that parts of the post-Heavensward story was set up for Shadowbringers, and that was all but confirmed with this story arc.

I do know that Shadowbringers has a new gameplay mechanic to it, called trusts. We had trusts in FFXI so I'm familiar with the idea, but I'm interested to see exactly how it works story-wise.

I have also lost my "New Adventurer" sprout. I am not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I've been playing over a year so I'm not really new, but on the other I rather liked having the status to lean on. It made me feel like it was okay to make mistakes.

Finally, I'm glad I wasn't spoiled for certain things. While I still feel that the end of A Realm Reborn had the best "holy shit!" reaction from me, there were moments in Stormblood where I went, "wow, didn't see THAT coming!"

Oh: I also started a third character! I wanted to see the story starting from Ul'dah (each of the three starting cities have different stories to start). My character literally came to me in a dream! I've been having fun with her, though my therapist will be disappointed to hear I chickened out on following through on my plans to make her a tank. I did start out as a gladiator but switched to thaumaturge when it came time for dungeons, sigh.

Althea Valara, level 71 bard, Coeurl server
Eirian Ari, level 58 summoner, Brynhildr server
Windy Storm, Goblin server

--------------------
Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays & Thursdays: Final Fantasy XVI
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV MSQ & Side Quests
7:30pm - 10:30pm Central or thereabouts
Post #216339
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Posted: 5th November 2020 19:54
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Behemoth
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Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
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Hunt: Showdown

Got this during the Steam Holloween sale and was figuring to play it once some space was cleared on the old SSD. Turns out this things only a...25GB install?! For a 2020 game?! What, is it a retro shooter?!

No. No it is not.

If ya know me, ya know I cannot shut up about Alien: Isolation (don't worry, this is relevant). I put me in some good...hmm, lessee...127 hrs of that SINGLE PLAYER game. I gots da love and it's because the design of the game is so rooted in an immersion that understands that the limited visual range of a first person stealth game has to be supported by a robust audio design and boy does it deliver! Best sound design in a videogame bar none!

Until now.

H:S is technically a Battle Royale, but the late 1800's Deep South the game takes place in isn't gonna put up with your standard chug 'n run, pray 'n spray tactics of Fortnite or PUBG. It's long barrel, single shot rifles and six shooters, which means if you want to survive, you have to make those shots count which means getting a position on your oppenent. And to do that...you have to listen. Like Isolation, sound is GOD in this game. Literally every sound is transmitted, and your position can be given away a thousand different ways, from accidentally startling animals, to the cries of angry zombies that have noticed you, to simply opening a metal gate, every action carries with it an audio consequence that can give away the game if you're not extremely cautious. Conversely, if you keep your ears open, it can give you the edge on figuring what your enemies are planning. All of my kills in the game so far have been from players I heard long before I saw them!

See, what your doing is competing with other teams to find a 'boss', kill it, take its prize and leave the map without anyone stealing it from you...by killing you. Needless to say, this is an endeavor that's very difficult to accomplish without firing your gun - a sound that carries to the entirety of the map and instantly gives your position away to experienced players - so managing speed vs. noise ends up being an extremely tense experience on par with the most ass-clenching of horror games!

In point of fact, that's basically what the game is. A Battle Royale Horror game. I may not be a big BR guy, but I'm aaaaall about that horror! And this game delivers!

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Post #216354
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Posted: 13th November 2020 23:10

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Cactuar
Posts: 242

Joined: 13/6/2001

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Quote (AltheaValara @ 25th October 2020 23:26)
So I finished the main part of Final Fantasy XIV:Stormblood way back in August. I got distracted from story for a few months. First it was the Yo-Kai Watch special event sucking up my time, then came another round of the Ishgard Restoration, which is a perfect way to level crafting jobs (I got all mine to 70).

I probably would still have been shying away from story if new housing areas hadn't opened, and darn it, I decided I really wanted an apartment for my catboy. To qualify for housing, though, you need to reach a high rank in your Grand Company, which not only requires hunting logs to be filled but also has some quests involving dungeons. I hadn't done dungeons in a while due to social anxiety, but I WANTED THAT APARTMENT so I summoned the courage and knocked the two dungeons out one night.

I survived, and it wasn't that terrible, so I decided to plunge back into story on my main character. That was about two weeks ago., I think? Time is a blur these days. Anyway, as of tonight I have finished the post-Stormblood story and will be starting Shadowbringers in the next few days, hurray!

No spoilers from me, other than to say my social anxiety greatly appreciated that there were less dungeons to do and more solo duties. I had also been pretty sure that parts of the post-Heavensward story was set up for Shadowbringers, and that was all but confirmed with this story arc.

I do know that Shadowbringers has a new gameplay mechanic to it, called trusts. We had trusts in FFXI so I'm familiar with the idea, but I'm interested to see exactly how it works story-wise.

I have also lost my "New Adventurer" sprout. I am not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I've been playing over a year so I'm not really new, but on the other I rather liked having the status to lean on. It made me feel like it was okay to make mistakes.

Finally, I'm glad I wasn't spoiled for certain things. While I still feel that the end of A Realm Reborn had the best "holy shit!" reaction from me, there were moments in Stormblood where I went, "wow, didn't see THAT coming!"

Oh: I also started a third character! I wanted to see the story starting from Ul'dah (each of the three starting cities have different stories to start). My character literally came to me in a dream! I've been having fun with her, though my therapist will be disappointed to hear I chickened out on following through on my plans to make her a tank. I did start out as a gladiator but switched to thaumaturge when it came time for dungeons, sigh.

Althea Valara, level 71 bard, Coeurl server
Eirian Ari, level 58 summoner, Brynhildr server
Windy Storm, Goblin server

Have you finished Final Fantasy VII Remake yet? Best sequel to Final Fantasy VII thats been released so far. I always wondered what happened after Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus.

FFXIV I completely agree with you. I love that game so much.

--------------------
His Divine Shadow

Got Lexx?

Click to vist FFF.

Post #216365
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Posted: 24th November 2020 07:45
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Behemoth
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Joined: 24/6/2001

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
First place in the 2008  Has more than fifty fanarts in CoN galleries. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy I section of CoN. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy IV section of CoN. 
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Bought up a few games from PS4 sale one of which I'm rather regretting...

First is Ace Combat 7. As one could prolly imagine from a lot of my recent posts, the VR was of noted interest to me. I know they didn't have much more than a three mission demo, but hey...it was on sale. VR is still impressive nonetheless, however the screen blacks out if you tilt your head back too far, which can be an issue when trying to track your target as yer flying between mountains to avoid missile fire!

Having already played Squadrons, it becomes clear there's a lotta shared DNA in these two games, VR or no. While the flight mechanics of Squadrons can be directly traced back to the X-Wing series, the story-heavy, character-focused mission structure is clearly taking more than a few notes from the AC series, including its penchant for melodrama. As someone who cut his teeth on 90's flight sims, these soap opera pilots are quite a tough sell, but I got through Unsung War, so I guess I can deal with this nonsense!

The other game I was Dark Souls: Remastered...and I immediately regret it.

Not because the game's bad or anything. It's the first I've played it on console and while the visual upgrades feel almost non-existant, it still feels like the Dark Souls I remember!

My regret comes in the realization that I should have bought it for my Switch! The nature of the Soulsborne signature save system makes 'em perfect for a pick up 'n play game console! Oh well...

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Post #216399
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Posted: 31st December 2020 03:58

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Magitek Soldier
Posts: 339

Joined: 25/1/2014

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Member of more than five years. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. 
I have just finished the main FFXIV:Shadowbringers storyline! Now I'm standing in my house jamming to the Shadowbringers song while I write this.

In ways, Shadowbringers reminded me of Heavensward because in both expansions, the story could be summed up in a few sentences. The difference is that while I enjoyed Heavensward, I felt kind of cheated by the story. Not so in Shadowbringers - the journey is quite something, rather heartbreaking at times.

I said elsewhere that the main "bad" guy in Shadowbringers rivaled Caius Ballad from XIII-2. Before playing this expansion, if you asked me who my favorite Final Fantasy villain was, I'd say Ballad. Now I just might have to change that and say Emet-Selch instead.

Mild spoiler for Shadowbringers:

Possible spoilers: highlight to view
It's a rare villain who makes you feel regret for killing them. Emet-Selch succeeded in this. I understand why he had to die, but I'm not sure it was the just thing to do.


Otherwise: I developed a crush on Alisaie during Stormblood. Shadowbringers cemented that crush, and it's all because an NPC says that Alisaie "won't stop talking about you" and is "smitten" with you. SMITTEN, FOLKS. I think I was giddy for a week after that, lol. She's such a great character, and I know a lot of people who agree with me.

Now I plan to take a break from MSQ for about a week to let it digest. In the meantime I'm going to get my crafts to 80 (they're 70 now). I'm also hoping 2021 will be the Year of the Backlog for me. First game I intend on attempting is FFVIIR, wish me luck!

--------------------
Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays & Thursdays: Final Fantasy XVI
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV MSQ & Side Quests
7:30pm - 10:30pm Central or thereabouts
Post #216444
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Posted: 5th January 2021 23:36

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Cactuar
Posts: 242

Joined: 13/6/2001

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
Currently playing and enjoying Cyberpunk 2077. It's a wonderfully broken game. From the Leaks which have all proved true the entire game was changed and sort of downgraded when Keanu came aboard. The staff in the leaks have nothing but good things to say about the way but him coming aboard made it a more linear game and scrapped many parts of the game including the undercity.

The game two years ago was a very different game and if you played the current game watch this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjF9GgrY9c0...l=Cyberpunk2077

Its the game they intended to release before Keanu came aboard and its VERY different. Johnny Silverland according to the leaks was more of a terrorist and more fanatical.

To appease gaming journalists they removed Gender Options after a massive attack two years ago. Also modders discovered audio of a romance between Judy with a male V. Its believed to appease the gaming journalists they made the most attractive character a lesbian.

Overall the game is a buggy mess but I love it. I've been playing it on current gen which means its the worst experience.

This launch is so bad even though I have over 160 hours into this game I am still eligible for a refund by Sony of all people as this game is considered defective. Even after all the patches.

If you have a PS4 you can no longer buy this game digitally.

Also if you bought the game at GameStop....struggling GameStop is accepting refunds if you bought the game for them as well.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/22/2219542...-even-if-opened

https://www.newsweek.com/cyberpunk-2077-ref...box-one-1556754

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/cyberpunk-20...ing-refunds-now

https://www.vg247.com/2020/12/22/gamestop-c...k-2077-returns/

I have never seen something like this happen.

If you have a PC this is the best way to play it though there are tons of glitches and even good PC's are not able to run it properly.

Video Game Journalists who were attacking this game because of politics the early reviews just talked about politics but showed they really didn't play the game. After the consumer uproar gaming journalists have taken advantage of this pushing out negative stories and showcasing the 'PS2 graphics' in their second 're'review.

https://www.ign.com/articles/cyberpunk-2077...tation-4-review

--------------------
His Divine Shadow

Got Lexx?

Click to vist FFF.

Post #216445
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Posted: 10th January 2021 03:39

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Maniacal Clown
Posts: 5,394

Joined: 31/10/2003

Awards:
Third place in CoNCAA, 2019. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2015. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2014. 
User has rated 75 fanarts in the CoN galleries. Member of more than ten years. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. User has rated 25 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
See More (Total 9)
Recently finished both The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Knight Eternal.

This was the very first time I played Ocarina of Time, amazingly. For whatever reason, despite my interest in fantasy, the Zelda series never really grabbed my attention. I'd played Link to the Past many years ago, and in more recent times I'd become a semi-regular player of the Link to the Past Randomizer. Those friends who helped get me into it are also into the other Zelda games and their randomizers, so they finally egged me into playing OOT.

Before this happened, I wasn't much interested in OOT, despite its stellar reputation. I expected the first 3D Zelda game that I'd play to be Twilight Princess, as I'm actually interested in that one.

Instead, as one of the first things I did this year, I finished a playthrough of OOT. I also got 100% of the items/chests, including all skulltulas. And that includes defeating the final boss, by which I mean not Ganon but Horseback Archery. As well as both forms of the bonus boss, by which I mean Dampé's digging game and racing Dampé (without using the hookshot and somehow managing after much failure to get a sub-1-minute result).

It also got me to do something about my controller. The rubber on my analog stick was shedding horribly this entire time, and near the end of my run, I finally just tore the rubber all off, so that I wouldn't need to clean up after every time I streamed the game for those friends. And yes, I streamed the entire game for them, including all of my bumbling through the game, getting lost in dungeons, wasting time trying to get items, and much more.

As for Knight Eternal, I finished that yesterday. That is a JRPG that I bought here: https://joshua-keith.itch.io/knight-eternal (it is also available on Steam).

It's got an interesting story that goes into the political relations between two countries, and it's also very "classic" in how it really does a good job replicating the feel of an 8-bit/16-bit era JRPG. The game isn't quite as epic in length as an FF game, and even with taking my time generously I ended up finishing in 20 hours (though I have yet to find and beat the bonus boss and a few of the elite mooks), but does feel similar enough, and for example if you know the FF games you'll probably know what spells roughly do what, just by their names. The game has four characters, with a skill tree plus customizable spells and non-spell skills. The storytelling is particularly entertaining, with the characters coming to life with lively and often pretty amusing dialogue that still fits with the more serious elements of the story.
And the game world also has quite a variety of little secrets here and there.

If you check the itch page, you may notice me (under a different name) having posted a ton of comments. The dev has actually replied to me and ended up releasing an update to the game (yes, the dev updates the DRM-free version on itch) incorporating fixes for bugs I pointed out. So, that's another good thing about this game -- the dev being responsive in case you run into bugs.



Other games I might want to finish soon:
* Jeanne d'Arc - strategy JRPG. The main thing that makes this take long is the fact that each individual battle takes a long time, and I'm often not sure I can sit around for long enough to do the thing, as SRPG battles take a lot of careful planning. It's very rewarding to pull off a successful battle, and I'm also trying to avoid playable-character KOs, but it's just very time-intensive.
* Dragonsphere - a point and click adventure. I've played the beginning of it, and I think it's not that long?
* La-Mulana - archaeological ruins exploration/puzzle platformer - this one will have to wait until I can coordinate a timing for me to stream this to a friend.
* Operation Abyss - dungeon-crawler. This one's gonna take a while since I think I'm only at a halfway point.
* Recettear - item shop sim. This one could take some time to complete.
* Lufia II - JRPG, which I started many years ago, stalled on, then restarted and then stalled on again.
* Pokémon Crystal - mon-collecting JRPG. While I have this on cart, I was playing a catch-'em-all playthrough with a romhack that allows me to catch 'em all in one game, but then I lost my save file. Now I'd have to start over. And at this point I've also been looking into a few different alternative romhacks for doing such a playthrough.

These are in addition to me wanting to play Shining Resonance Refrain.

Visual novels I might want to finish soon:
* Adventure of a Lifetime - I mentioned it here earlier; it's about some teenagers exploring the tropical waters around the Ogasawara Islands for a special treasure. I know this has at least two routes; I dunno if I will read both.
* Highway Blossoms - This one is about a treasure-hunting adventure set in the southwestern U.S., and has yuri romance. I picked it up in the itch.io Racial Justice Bundle last year, and it has turned out to be a very well-written work.
* Dysfunctional Systems episode 0: Orientation - I've read episode 1, which is really really good, and I backed the Kickstarter campaign for episodes 2 and 3. They still have yet to be made, but I did get episode 0 out of it, which I started reading. This series is about a school for what are basically conflict resolution mediators. The story in episode 1 gets pretty serious.
* fault milestone two side:above - I haven't actually started this one, but I did read fault milestone one, which I really like. It's a serious story set in a fantasy world with some steampunk/sciencepunk(? not sure about genre terms) elements. I have this sequel to it, as well as a spinoff episode called Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell, which is supposed to be a familiar fairy tale in-universe.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 10th January 2021 03:53

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current games (2024-02-19):
Fairy Fencer F ADF
Pokémon Perfect Crystal

finished so far this year:
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
TMNT 3: Radical Rescue

tabled: Lost Ruins
Post #216446
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Posted: 24th February 2021 20:07

*
Magitek Soldier
Posts: 339

Joined: 25/1/2014

Awards:
Member of more than five years. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. 
Last night I finished the last bit of the current MSQ in FFXIV, so I am completely caught up with the story.

It's a weird feeling. I started playing in September 2019, and it took me this long to get through it all. I got used to having more story to play, but now I'm forced to wait for the next patch. There's still plenty of content to do; I want to finish getting my crafters up to 80, plus I need to do the Ivalice raids so I can unlock Bozja/relics. And I do have my two alts....

I'm hoping that having exhausted the MSQ will free me up to play other games. I've been sorely neglecting Brave Exvius lately, and would like to get back to that. Other games on my radar are a replay of FFIV (because XIV's next expansion appears to be influenced by it) and finally getting off my butt to play Tactics: War of the Lions. That latter is because the Ivalice raids in XIV have Tactics characters in them, and well, I HATE SPOILERS and I'm kind of feeling like Square Enix spoiled me for another one of their games, blah.

Otherwise, I restarted FFVII Remake! I played a bit last Thursday but didn't get far. I intend to play more tomorrow. Even on Classic I'm totally flailing with the controls; I'm just too used to XIV, and things in Remake work differently. It's rather frustrating.

--------------------
Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays & Thursdays: Final Fantasy XVI
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV MSQ & Side Quests
7:30pm - 10:30pm Central or thereabouts
Post #216470
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Posted: 12th March 2021 01:15
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Behemoth
Posts: 2,835

Joined: 24/6/2001

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
First place in the 2008  Has more than fifty fanarts in CoN galleries. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy I section of CoN. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy IV section of CoN. 
See More (Total 9)
Been going through a bit of schizophrenia with my library as of late. Quite a bit I've dabbled, without really committing to any one thing.

RE7, Bloodborne, Dark Souls III and Squandrons
Putting these all together because they're the ones I've put in the least amount of time with, just pop them on occasionally. I've said all I need to about 'em anyway...except Dark Souls 3. I have the game for the PC, but it was on the cheap for the PS4 w/ the dcls and I hadn't played it in a few years so I thought...why not. Turns out it kinda runs ass on the PS4...and I'm using a Pro! Made parry windows MUCH more difficult to sus out so I ended up dropping it for the original Dark Souls instead.

Dark Souls
This was my first real dedicated NG+ run on this game and I put in my own self-imposed challenge of gulping down all of my humanity that I had on me when I started the run. Now if you don't know, humanity is a thing in the game that has a loooot of important uses. Consuming humanity allows you to regain humanity at a bonfire, which in turn allows you to kindle a bonfire so you get more health refills when you go there as well as open up multiplayer...but consuming humanity and then not using it for those things builds up a counter not unlike your souls, and the more you've consumed, the greater your item discovery is. However just like souls, all that consumed humanity will be lost once you die and if you can't recover it...yep! S'all gone sucka! And humanity is very rare. So yeah, I consumed 40 some odd humanity at the start and was able to hold on to it...until Blighttown. Because it's always ****ing Blighttown in'it? Put the game down for a while after that...

GTA V
I haven't started a new game, so I'm not really 'playing' the game so much as just wondering around the place seeing how well it runs after I updated the comp with more ram and a slightly better cpu. I guess its better? Can't remember how it ran back then, but well enough for me to complete the campaign.

Astro Bot: Rescue Mission
So this was a game I got so long ago, I can't even remember how I got it, but I never installed it until recently. Turns out I was depriving myself of a really fun platformer! The gimmick here is that it's a vr game where you are the camera. Levels are a literal straight line that you get tracked down as you have your character move further ahead (think something like the back-camera levels Crash Bandicoot), but with some slight dimensionality as the character jumps about on platforms that are situated all around you. It's cute, it's fun, and it plays really well.

Hornyrizing: Zero Dudes
Back on mah bullshit! I've completed this game in both NG and NG+, but I haven't beaten it on NG+ on ULTRA HARD...which gets me what I found out is the last achievement I need to get all of 'em, which I think would be a first for me, soooo why not!

Rise of the Tomb Raider
I got this and Shadow from PS+ a while back, but I didn't really feel like giving it a go until recently...where I've quickly learned I was right to feel that way. It's not bad by any stretch. So far it's played fine, but I already played it a few months ago when it was called Uncharted and it took itself much less seriously.

Iconoclasts
Earlier, I noted my regret buying Dark Souls Remastered for the PS4 instead of the Switch and it prompted me to see what was for sale on the thing and it turns out Iconoclasts was offering a good bargain. A pixel platformer from a few years back, I am astounded to find out it was basically a Cave Story deal of being developed by one dude...and it does not look it! This things gotta a good 'n proper sheen to it that feels like a full studio effort. Between this and Celeste, I think I'll make the Switch my dedicated pixel...uh...platform.

FF VII: Remake
Imagine my astonishment when I found out my PS+ account was offering up this sucker to me for free?! It's not like it's an old game! I actually haven't played too much. The combat takes a lotta getting used to. It's noisy and confusing in a way I'm not sure I'm down with for a double digit hours game, but damn if'n it don't look purty!

This post has been edited by Narratorway on 12th March 2021 01:20

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Post #216489
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Posted: 24th April 2021 06:26
*
Behemoth
Posts: 2,835

Joined: 24/6/2001

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
First place in the 2008  Has more than fifty fanarts in CoN galleries. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy I section of CoN. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy IV section of CoN. 
See More (Total 9)
Doom 3 VR

Waaaaay back in the day, I played Doom3...a lot. Largely it was due to the fact that it was really the only game I could play that looked as good as it did that would run on the hardware I had at the time. After I gotta newer rig, I bought Half Life 2 as a comparison.

user posted image
As was the style at the time.

One thing I noticed was how oddly proportioned everyone was in Doom, very broad bodies atop which were notably tiny heads. Now this was back when I was still using CRT monitors, so you can only imagine how jarring it is to see in notoriously scale-sensitive VR. Honestly, not that jarring...but very hilarious.

user posted image
A screenshot from the game.

I've only played it for an hour so far and by all accounts, it feels like this is a concept so solid, that it can even survive an sloppy execution. Aside from the noted scaling issues, this VR port is rife with little problems. The audio is straight up awful, with a persistent echo going through the whole mix to the point where it feels broken. The game autosaves, and does so by stopping the game to tell you its autosaving and making you wait it out. I was playing Dark Souls earlier today that had autosaves that famously doesn't interfer with the gameplay and that game came out seven years after this one! The tracking for my controller is...rough, which kinda matters since you aim your weapons with it.

But as I said, that all ends up kinda sliding by the wayside as the original game is just so solidly built, the experience of playing it in VR is still too good to pass up!

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Post #216521
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Posted: 24th April 2021 16:25

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Cactuar
Posts: 242

Joined: 13/6/2001

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
Quote (AltheaValara @ 24th February 2021 15:07)
Last night I finished the last bit of the current MSQ in FFXIV, so I am completely caught up with the story.

It's a weird feeling. I started playing in September 2019, and it took me this long to get through it all. I got used to having more story to play, but now I'm forced to wait for the next patch. There's still plenty of content to do; I want to finish getting my crafters up to 80, plus I need to do the Ivalice raids so I can unlock Bozja/relics. And I do have my two alts....

I'm hoping that having exhausted the MSQ will free me up to play other games. I've been sorely neglecting Brave Exvius lately, and would like to get back to that. Other games on my radar are a replay of FFIV (because XIV's next expansion appears to be influenced by it) and finally getting off my butt to play Tactics: War of the Lions. That latter is because the Ivalice raids in XIV have Tactics characters in them, and well, I HATE SPOILERS and I'm kind of feeling like Square Enix spoiled me for another one of their games, blah.

Otherwise, I restarted FFVII Remake! I played a bit last Thursday but didn't get far. I intend to play more tomorrow. Even on Classic I'm totally flailing with the controls; I'm just too used to XIV, and things in Remake work differently. It's rather frustrating.

You just finished Shadowbringers MSQ?

I personally will be replaying in new game plus FFXIV from start to finish. The game is wonderful

--------------------
His Divine Shadow

Got Lexx?

Click to vist FFF.

Post #216522
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Posted: 24th April 2021 18:24

*
Magitek Soldier
Posts: 339

Joined: 25/1/2014

Awards:
Member of more than five years. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. 
Quote (His Shadow @ 24th April 2021 10:25)
You just finished Shadowbringers MSQ?

I personally will be replaying in new game plus FFXIV from start to finish. The game is wonderful

Yeah, I'm done with Shadowbringers MSQ. Patch 5.5 was my first time waiting for new story to drop, and I played it ASAP once it did. OMG, it was delightful. Had lots of fun squeeing about it in Discord with my dear friend who also plays.

I am still playing FFXIV heavily. On my main character I'm in relic hell. I have five(!) in process, six if you count the HW relic I started.

One of my alts (Windy Storm, on Goblin) is currently playing through Heavensward. I've actually been streaming it! We're getting near the end of HW but if anybody has been interested in the game but too cheap to pay for it, feel free to tune in to my stream. I stream Monday, Thursday, Saturday from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm Central, at https://twitch.tv/altheavalara

Otherwise, I am still playing FFBE, though not as much as I'd like. And I've gone back to War of the Visions:FFBE, too, thanks to their first anniversary event. I don't play WOTV heavily; mostly, I have been trying (and failing) to acquire Yuna. Will likely try to farm some visiore today for more attempts.

I have not played FFVIIR since the night I tried streaming it and felt way too flail-y at the controls. Sigh. I need to get back to it.

One game I'll be playing soon is Chesslocke. It's a chess RPG designed by my friend Loxxulus. I just bought a computer last weekend (hurray! been without one of my own for YEARS) which means I finally have access to Steam and could buy the game. Had to support my friend, you know. cool.gif I'll post a review here once I finish the game.

--------------------
Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays & Thursdays: Final Fantasy XVI
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV MSQ & Side Quests
7:30pm - 10:30pm Central or thereabouts
Post #216523
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Posted: 3rd May 2021 05:19

*
Cactuar
Posts: 245

Joined: 4/3/2007

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
We mean Final Fantasy will be around to pick up to play like other games. A better question are in what order is the duration of games least to most you play? My youtube channel more than describes that. I'd say the easier game to play is any Smash Brothers games that I'm doing right now. Fun and simple though not as deep as FFs imo.

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https://www.youtube.com/user/Greatermaxim

Terra - LV 99 - HP 9999 - MP 999

Equipment - - - Abilities

Illumina - - - - - Fight
Genji Shield - - Morph
Oath Veil - - - - Magic
Minerva - - - - - Item
Ribbon
Economizer
Post #216526
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Posted: 20th May 2021 05:01

*
Black Mage
Posts: 170

Joined: 13/7/2006

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
Making my way through FFX for the first time ever. What to say it about?

I got my money's worth, all $6 of it. Though that doesn't say much when the shipping cost more than the game itself. Came with the manual, which is a welcome find.

Also now have the context to understand why To Zanarkand is such a highly regarded part of the soundtrack.

I do see how the Sphere Grid can get grindy. Need to fight things for the ability to move around as well as the items to activate your stat increases and skills. It's been paced well enough so far that I haven't found it necessary to grind for want of stats and I'm generally picking up key abilities in time. If anything, I find myself getting angrier at the encounter rate the further I am. It gets aggravating when trying to search for hidden treasure.

Not in it for the story as I'm aware of the major spoilers. Operation M'hen I guess is built up as suspenseful but I already knew what the outcome would be. Rollercoaster is a fitting description for the story flow; highs and lows and mood whiplash and very one-track. I've tried to avoid most backtracking due to the high encounter rate too.

The CTB system is where I derive most of my enjoyment. It's something I already have experience with Atelier games and I still find it fun to plan my moves to the best effect I can. None of the frustration of ATB where being a half-second too slow to enter a command can lead to taking extra hits.

Being my first time through, I'm not going to stress over finding everything or finishing all the optional stuff. Unlikely to finish the Celestial weapons given the reputation for their difficulty or tediousness. The minigames so far have been mostly a miss with me. I'm not going to mock anyone who happens to like Blitzball but it left a very sour initial impression with me. Butterfly catching I gave 2-3 tries and found I did very poorly with it.

Perhaps I'll speak more of this game another day. Though I don't post here often so who knows?

This post has been edited by DragonKnight Zero on 22nd May 2021 23:18
Post #216536
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Posted: 26th May 2021 18:33
*
Behemoth
Posts: 2,835

Joined: 24/6/2001

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
First place in the 2008  Has more than fifty fanarts in CoN galleries. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy I section of CoN. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy IV section of CoN. 
See More (Total 9)
The Witness
This hasn't got its hooks in me entirely, but it feels like the quintessential casual game...for me. All the design elements are completely open ended. There's no combat, no goal stated, no objectives provided, no stats, or UI interface. It's just an island you explore in the first person, littered with grid puzzles for you to solve at your leisure. It's not without structure though. Everything 'directed' is baked into the design of the game and your expected to figure out through context clues. For me, that took a lotta pressure off because there's no way to 'fail'. If you can't solve a puzzle in one section, you can walk around to somewhere else and find another one to tackle instead. No harm, no foul. And the puzzles themselves are real interesting so far, even the ones I have no idea how to figure out. The island is divided into distinct visual 'sections' and many sections have a sequence of deactivated puzzles connected by literal wires you can physically follow to find the origin puzzle to solve to give power to the next slightly-more-difficult puzzle to solve to give power etc. These wired sequence puzzles in each section have a very specific 'theme', teaching your about a specific aspect of the puzzle design that'll be integrated in other various puzzles you find throughout the island. I heard once the game was designed as a way to teach non-coders about how code works in the abstract and I can believe it. The entire thing feels like an attempt to create a way to learn without using text. There's literally only one tutorial prompt in the entire game and it's at the beginning to tell you what the 'x' button does. Game doesn't even tell you how to look around or move for first person newbies.

Subnautica
This has really got its hooks in me and I've been playing it a lot more than The Witness. I want to make that clear right off the bat, because I don't have much to say about it. It's honestly just another resource management survival game, but it does have a visually distinct setting and a much faster sense of progression than I was expecting so I wasted a lot of time on my first run. I only just found the alien structure, which feels like the end of the 'tutorial' section of the game, so I can't really call it a big spoiler.

Resident Evil VIIIage
For years after RE4 came out, I'd always said I'd enjoy it more if it was a FPS, but what I realized not too long ago is that what I meant is that I'd enjoy it more if it played like a FPS i.e. had dedicated strafing. Whelp, here I am playing RE8 and I hardly ever circle strafe. Guess I'm eating crow tonight...and not just cause there's a lotta crows in the game.

Cause there are.

I'm glad I quit RE7 a few months back because the tonal shift between that game and this one would have been jarring as hell! This game is RE4...if RE4 was the sequel to RE1! It's as unapologetically ridiculous as the old school Resident Evil games would get, with dialogue that's only slightly less stilted and I for one am 100% on board! If I have any issue, it's with the player character, Ethan. It's hard to explain with out context so bear with me:

Ethan was the player character introduced in RE7...and barely one at that beyond screams of pain or the occasional sardonic dialogue in the face of the ridiculous. Now, in a game that is exponentially more ridiculous, all the snark is completely gone. Ethan is a lot more talkative in this game, but it's all generic desperation and anger. Even worse is now he has plot relevance, so he's focused on a lot more. In RE7, his lack of character kept things focused on the experience of playing the game itself and that turned out to be for the better, but now there's just piles of cutscenes of people talking to him about stupid Resident Evil Plot Nonsense That Doesn't Matter and what little of his personality that was interesting in 7 never shows up in 8. He changed from a non-character to a boring one.

Thankfully, the game makes up for it with interesting characters, settings, and gameplay switch ups. The Lady Demistrecu of 'big mommy milkers' fame is the first of four bosses you have to beat and her section is easily the most traditionally 'Resident Evil', with a castle to explore for items you collect to reach a climatic monster bash battle that leaves you back at the start where you can explore a bit more of the titular Village before moving on to the next boss. Each one has a different...I won't say 'gimmick' but style about them and while it actually varies wildly how long each one takes up your time, I can say none of them are ever boring or drag. It feels brisk, though that might be debatable. I'm at what I'm reasonably certain is the final boss and Steam says I've put in over 15 hrs.

If I can levy one (other) complaint about the game, is its quite annoying habit of locking off sections of its game as you progress. There's quite a few areas where if you haven't fully explored the region and you've moved on, you won't be able to come back. This can lock you out of much-needed treasure you can sell to purchase late-game weaponry and upgrades. It bugged me in DOOM and it bugs me here.

Other than that, it's a damned good time and highly recommended!

This post has been edited by Narratorway on 26th May 2021 18:39

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Post #216539
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Posted: 26th May 2021 19:00

*
Maniacal Clown
Posts: 5,394

Joined: 31/10/2003

Awards:
Third place in CoNCAA, 2019. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2015. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2014. 
User has rated 75 fanarts in the CoN galleries. Member of more than ten years. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. User has rated 25 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
See More (Total 9)
Started playing 100% Orange Juice again after taking a break that lasted like seven months or so.

Also started playing Frane: Dragons' Odyssey. It's an action RPG developed by EXE Create and published by Kemco, which is a company that seems to have published a lot of lesser-known JRPGs and has recently been bringing them to the western PC game market, albeit unfortunately only on Steam.

Frane, specifically, has an odd history, in the form of having once been localized and published by a troll localizer named Omega Translation House (a.k.a. OmegaTH, OTH). He rewrote the script, and commissioned someone to write a replacement soundtrack, for whatever reason. That version was released as "The Lost Angelic Chronicles of Frane: Dragons' Odyssey". And that replacement soundtrack can still be found on bandcamp.

But nowadays the game, now with a (presumably) more proper localization, can be found on Steam.

I help run the J-Indie Arcade curator group on Steam, which covers Japanese indie games, and was offered a copy through the "curator connect" system on Steam. Since I knew of its history, I figured I should be the one to play it and find out what it's actually like.

I haven't gotten very far though. Just stated the first dungeon. You play two characters and control the boy who has a melee attack with one button while the girl who follows you has a magic attack on the other button. Both of them seem to have something like a mild form of a limit break, which I have yet to play around with much.

The story involves the boy and girl being sent from...some place that seems like heaven, given that it's where angels and head god Zeus live, down to the surface world or something like that, to find the whereabouts of an angel who went to the surface without authorization.

Eventually I'm gonna be writing up a review for this game.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 26th May 2021 19:05

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current games (2024-02-19):
Fairy Fencer F ADF
Pokémon Perfect Crystal

finished so far this year:
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
TMNT 3: Radical Rescue

tabled: Lost Ruins
Post #216541
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Posted: 28th May 2021 06:12

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Chimera
Posts: 1,095

Joined: 15/8/2005

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2015. User has rated 300 fanarts in the CoN galleries. Member of more than ten years. 
Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2014. User has rated 150 fanarts in the CoN galleries. Participated at the forums for the CoN's 15th birthday! User has rated 75 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
See More (Total 12)
It's been nothin' but the Trails of Cold Steel series the last five months. Must have put at least 800 hours total into to it by now, although I suppose a good chunk of that was from hitting up every monster on the board at least once. Oh, and Pom Pom Party. I think I enjoyed that mini-game more than I should have.

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Post #216544
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Posted: 1st June 2021 02:16

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Black Mage
Posts: 170

Joined: 13/7/2006

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
FFX beaten: what else to say?

I do see myself replaying it but only once for completion. The game does have a slow start and the many unskippable cutscenes don't lend themselves to multiple replays much in contrast to FF5. Also, the character building is mostly linear on the original PS2 release so a repeat experience would not see much variation in their roles or stat growth.

Was able to beat the game from when I reached the last save point without further grinding. Since I didn't grind much, the final boss put up a real fight. My strategy was shaky looking back and would have fallen apart if people started dying. I did do some monster capturing of by-then-fodder monsters and brute forced Attack Reels but not much else optional stuff before just going for the end. (which didn't have much impact on Sphere Levels but the Stamina Tonics and Three Stars were integral in beating the game without too much fuss) Took about two hours from loading the game at the last save to the end of the credits so beating this is not something I'll be doing often.

Equipment: Didn't buy anything but Capture weapons, making do with whatever I found or won. Given how straight upgrades don't seem to exist and all the other various money sinks present, didn't seem worth it. I acquired a lot of meaningless clutter throughout the game, much of it sold to fuel the various money sinks such as Bribe.

Customize: Barely used it at all. Getting the items for most abilities other than a token few easy ones takes farming. And customizing being permanent really seems to punish experimentation. Don't like the final set of abilities on your armor? Feel you messed up? Start over and farm the items again for another attempt. Sucker. There is no way to transfer an ability from one piece of gear from another, really painful for something that uses items hard to acquire in bulk. The only time I used it was to put Alchemy on Rikku's weapon for the final boss. (Mega-Potions that heal 4000 HP for the party? And I had stockpiled 91 of them? Oh yes.)

Celestial weapons: Only found 3 of them. Got most of the Crests. Passed on the Sigils either because of difficulty, tedium, or annoying to do without No Encounters gear. Yuna's wouldn't be too bad except I never acquired Anima or the Magus stisters. Auron's I was more than half done with but chose to move on without.

Did I like anything? CTB. Interesting world-building. (Spira is a bleak place but an interesting subject for fanfiction) Some story moments got to me even if I was aware of the game's major spoilers. Character growth (both in story and gameplay). There is enough to like for me to finish it though I don't consider the game a masterpiece.

I do have a lot of scattered thoughts. Probably better not to try to force them all out at once.
Post #216547
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Posted: 2nd June 2021 04:49

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Black Waltz
Posts: 900

Joined: 12/7/2011

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Member of more than five years. User has rated 25 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
Super Mario World - I have taken to playing this in the mornings just to get myself to wake up my reflexes a little. I have never been a morning person and activating my muscle memory this way seems to help. I've now played through all 96 "Levels" 5 times, and this last one, I spiced things up by getting all the Dragon Coins.

Super Mario 64 Plus - I played up to 70 Stars and beat it. It's such a vast improvement over the original that I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to it, but I still wish that some Stars were not so infuriating to get (Looking at you, Manta Ray's Reward). Getting 100 coins can sometimes be a massive hassle, too, since even though Plus includes the option to turn off the Lives system (it changes the indicator to be a "number of misses" counter), you still lose all your coins if you die.

Final Fantasy V - Boy, this game loves to kick you in the teeth for playing it. It starts out so unbelievably simplistic, and gets Quadratic real fast! biggrin.gif Lol... But I love it, what can I say? It deserves its spot right next to Final Fantasy VI in the series; it is every bit as advanced a piece of software, even if the plot can descend into inane drivel at times, it is inane drivel that the story itself is unapologetically reveling in, and that has an effect on how I perceive it; the game seems to enjoy itself, so why shouldn't I?

Seriously though, Final Fantasy V will kill you for looking at it wrong. Sometimes it feels like they want me to use ONLY THE ONE EXTREMELY SPECIFIC SOLUTION that 100% works (Gil Turtle = cast float, use 3 Bards singing Requiem every turn, and one Knight who has Cover and continually Guards. Just don't try to do it any other way; you will get mad).

Mega Man Super - An HD Mesen Pack for Mega Man 1. I played through it the other day; it's lovely and the music sounds great, but it didn't make me much better at fighting the Yellow Devil. I am continually impressed, however, that I seem to have gotten good enough to eke out a victory on the first try these days, even if I still get my shit slapped pretty hard. And remember, the Select Trick isn't a technique, it's straight-up cheating.

This post has been edited by Spooniest on 2nd June 2021 04:53

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X is blue.
Post #216549
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Posted: 3rd June 2021 01:54

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Maniacal Clown
Posts: 5,394

Joined: 31/10/2003

Awards:
Third place in CoNCAA, 2019. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2015. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2014. 
User has rated 75 fanarts in the CoN galleries. Member of more than ten years. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. User has rated 25 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
See More (Total 9)
I dug up my save file and budget notes for Recettear. I'm actually already on the last week of loop one, and I might actually finally beat this game.



And I set up my stuff to play Pokémon Crystal -- specifically, one of the hacks where I can catch all 251 pokémon. I've been deciding between...

* Pokémon Crystal Emu Edition, which I think is the most vanilla in that it just adds in all the normally-unavailable mons (including legendaries via in-game trades), and restores Safari Zone, plus some other undocumented minor changes.

* Pokémon Patched Crystal, which also has bugfixes, reusable TMs, refightable gymleaders, catchable legendaries, adjusted time system so that everything isn't so early, and swapping the physical/special associations of Dark and Ghost.

* Pokémon Perfect Crystal (2020 Update), which also has bugfixes, reusable TMs, refightable gymleaders, catchable legendaries, simplified time reset mechanism, restored Cerulean Cave, adjusted levels of some trainers to match HeartGold/SoulSilver, and decorations/mystery gift items.

While none of these three choices does everything I would want (I'd want all Kanto locations restored to the extent they'd fit in the timeline, for example), I think Perfect Crystal 2020 is probably my choice. Now I just need to get around to deciding to start it.

I never got to play the cart version that I bought, since I had started playing my Gold cart shortly after I bought that at the same time, but then never finished that, and then stuff got busy in my life after that. But I've always wanted to actually play through this game. It's been basically a promise from my childhood. My Game Boy no longer works, probably because battery poop has caked it up and I have yet to take it apart to try to fix it, but it's not like I'd be able to play a 251-hack on that anyway. So now, I'm gearing up to finally fulfill this promise, all the way to completionism.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 3rd June 2021 01:57

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current games (2024-02-19):
Fairy Fencer F ADF
Pokémon Perfect Crystal

finished so far this year:
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
TMNT 3: Radical Rescue

tabled: Lost Ruins
Post #216550
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Posted: 18th June 2021 06:30
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Behemoth
Posts: 2,835

Joined: 24/6/2001

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
First place in the 2008  Has more than fifty fanarts in CoN galleries. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy I section of CoN. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy IV section of CoN. 
See More (Total 9)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

So it's no secret that FromSoft has basically been remaking Dark Souls every new game they've made since...well Demon's Souls, even though it's kinda obvious that they probably don't want to. And y'know what? I get it. There's just too many good ideas in the genre they invented to give them up. The solid structure, the polished mechanics, the natural pacing and GOD, that level design!'

The fact that they saw how people played the core series and made games that explored the specific meta's that naturally emerged from it. Bloodborne explored the dodge build, while Sekiro explores the parry build, both mechanics that I used to survive my time with OG series. I can only assume Elden Ring with cover the cast build...which means I'll never bother to play it. tongue.gif

I say Bloodborne 'explored' the dodge, but it still very much structured itself as a Dark Souls game. Sekiro...doesn't? There's still a lot of DS dna in here, don't get me wrong, but Sekiro is the equivalent of the Source Engine to Souls' Quake. Sorry, I been watching a lotta programming youtube lately. Anyshits...the game...

Is...hard. It's very hard. The key thing here is I never considered the original Souls games hard, because it was designed around the expectation of death and so death was a penalty, but not a punishment. You didn't lose anything from death you couldn't get back if you were tenacious and careful enough. Even if the death turned you hollow, your stats didn't change, you moved the same, you were not mechanically worse off. Sekiro chops your money and exp in half on death with no option to recover it and the more you die, the more a 'rot' mechanic grows that effects/disable npcs that would otherwise aid you in your journey. The resources for recovering from this problem are finite, but that's not the worse of it honestly.

As I said earlier, this game takes a core mechanic from the Souls series and places it at the forefront of the game: the parry mechanic. This is a mechanic used to stun certain enemies opening them for a special counter-attack known as a 'riposte' in the Souls and a 'deathblow' in Sekiro that allows for massive damage and makes you temporarily invincible, which makes it useful for tackling crowds. Thing is, in Sekiro, opening up the enemy to this counter attack requires multiple successive parries that whittle down the enemies stamina - called 'posture' in the game - that allows for the counter attack when depleted. It turns the game into something of a rhythm game, but also one that requires you to closely watch your enemy to see their attack windups and time your deflections accordingly. This leads to a problem unique to Sekiro.

It's too Japanese!

user posted image
But...Bruce Lee isn't Japane--*shuriken thunk*

Look I'll explain. Aside from the regular deflections you gotta do to break an enemy's posture, when fighting mini-bosses and actual bosses, you'll come across special attacks that have to countered a specific way or else risk taking massive damage. These attacks are telegraphed with Kanji symbols that appear over the enemy just before use that presumably indicate what kind of attack they're about to do. I say 'presumably' because I don't know. I can't read Japanese.

What I'm instead left with is a system that has this large, bright, Kanji brought up that communicates information I can't parse, while distracting/obscuring the actual character windup I need to see what they're actually doing and allow the time needed to properly counteract them. It's frustrating, especially when death is such a hassle to deal with. It allows for very little experimentation.

I don't nearly enjoy it as much as other From Soft's output, but I'm still knee deep in it so far, so much that I haven't even picked up the other games after dropping 'em for this sooo...I guess I really am just a glutton for punishment.

This post has been edited by Narratorway on 18th June 2021 06:32

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Post #216572
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Posted: 22nd June 2021 07:30

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Maniacal Clown
Posts: 5,394

Joined: 31/10/2003

Awards:
Third place in CoNCAA, 2019. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2015. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2014. 
User has rated 75 fanarts in the CoN galleries. Member of more than ten years. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. User has rated 25 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
See More (Total 9)
And now I've started playing Pokémon Perfect Crystal (2020 Update).

At this point, I'm about to face the Violet City gym (that's the first gym), and I have 24 seen and captured. That includes all three starters, by the way. Because this is a romhack.

I did a casual test-run of running through that gym and I got faceplanted by Faulkner. He has slightly higher-level pokémon in this hack (level 9 Pidgey and level 13 Pidgeotto) compared to the vanilla game (7 and 9 I think, i.e. an even more underleveled Pidgeotto). But the biggest challenge is that he has Mud Slap on both of his pokémon -- which hampers my attempts to use Gastly or Geodude against him, because those are poison-type. And, for that matter, Cyndaquil, Vulpix, or Houndour, since those are fire-type. And of course, the variety of bug-types (Caterpie, Weedle, Ledyba, and Spinarak, and their evolutions) and grass-types (Bellsprout and now Chikorita) are out too.

Since I lack any access to electric-type moves right now (aside from Hidden Power electric, and I'm not about to figure out how to use it), it seems like the best options might just be to find some neutral mons that are strong enough. I have a reasonably strong team of...rather boring pokémon I can use, including Rattata, Pidgey, Poliwag (who does happen to learn Hypnosis, which can be useful), Totodile, Geodude, and Gastly.

That said, I was in the middle of raising Zubat since I noticed that it's pretty fast, when my Geodude finally did pick up Rock Throw, giving me my first decent attack tool against flying-types.

Gen 2 gymleaders tend to have pretty decent movesets. They're not just pushovers.

Anyhow, I need to beat Faulkner, not just for progress, but because I ran out of money for Pokéballs and I'd rather not sit around waiting for Joey to challenge me enough times.

--------------------
current games (2024-02-19):
Fairy Fencer F ADF
Pokémon Perfect Crystal

finished so far this year:
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
TMNT 3: Radical Rescue

tabled: Lost Ruins
Post #216580
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