RPG Community |OT| Take the Epoch to a New Era

[MoonFrog]

There are times I focus, and times I don't. Usually I have multiple games going on at once but there tend to be games that "override" the others, so to speak.

For example, I've been playing X2 practically every free moment I've had the last couple of days, but I turned to it in a moment of indecision wrt SMT 1 (figuring out how to work my alignment with the story choices and not wanting to look too much up) and intended to just use it as a break.

I started a lot of games during the holiday (SMT1, Ys VIII, Xenoblade, Tokyo Xanadu, DooM (2016)) and I've made good progress in all of them but only finished Ys VIII so far, which rose to forefront among SMT1 and X2 in the last week of December.

And then I have the games I was playing going into the holiday :P.

IDK I like finishing things, and a lack of focus doesn't help, but I tend to have projects I finish over months or even years and then ones I finish in days or weeks. (As a kid I pretty much just had the former).

...

I've lurked that computer thread, neat stuff that I have zero experience with (and unlikely ever to have) but I like looking at it :P.

 

[Aeana]

Yay, finished Risen. Really good! It definitely felt a lot like Gothic, just as I was promised.
The final boss was really disappointing, though.

Spoiler

It's one of those games where you spend the entire game playing one way, and then it forces you to play another. Were you a mage? Too bad, you're all decked out with the titan hammer. But even if you were a melee character, you don't get to use any of your cool stuff... it's just reflect beams Zelda style and then hit with hammer.

Pretty cool otherwise, though. And it intrigues me enough to want to check out the other Risen games if they deal with the titans (I assume 3 does, going by its subtitle).

 

[Sinatar]

Finished Pool of Radiance today, game 1 of my Gold Box playthrough in the bag.

The gold box games are soooooo good. Even now, god damn what a game. If you can deal with the visuals and the interface I highly highly recommend them.

 

[Arulan]

Finished Pool of Radiance today, game 1 of my Gold Box playthrough in the bag.

The gold box games are soooooo good. Even now, god damn what a game. If you can deal with the visuals and the interface I highly highly recommend them.

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I caught a little of your stream a few days ago. You play through RPGs fast!

I wholeheartedly agree. Pool of Radiance is such a fantastic RPG. It captures the sense of being on an adventure very well. You can parlay with enemies to acquire information. At times you'll have to translate Espruar and Dethek runes. Although not critical for most areas of Phlan, you will have to map out certain dungeons, such as Yarash's pyramid. Rumors that you hear can be a good source of information, but they're not reliable sources. Some are outright false.

 

[Knurek]

Finished Pool of Radiance today, game 1 of my Gold Box playthrough in the bag.

The gold box games are soooooo good. Even now, god damn what a game. If you can deal with the visuals and the interface I highly highly recommend them.

Click to shrink...

You're using Gold Box companion, right?

 

[MoonFrog]

I was feeling like I had been betrayed by two trees in two games (Ys VIII before this), but I feel better about the tree in Xenoblade now (just regained control after the dream sequence ended).

I was kind of bummed with the follow through on a certain someone after they set him up well by identifying him with the inequity and violence in the world (despite casting him as a somewhat mixed and troubled figure). It was a good boss fight. I just feel he didn't completely come together. I liked that he was a mix of arrogant, ambitious (and at times thwarted), and despondent and hateful about the world and there is narrative work going into setting him up, but he kind of loses nuance when he shows up as the super-baddy. IDK exactly what I wanted.

I feel better about Jin, I think that episode was awkward. I do think the narratives surrounding a) killing and b) Blade "freedom" are cliche and empty given the context where you are regularly killing soldiers and where blades are almost always presented as attached to masters or there is something wrong with them, their master, or both. I'd rather they just kept it to the "lovers of nature" versus "perverters of nature" narrative.

Spoiler

I think they treated his wavering well in two respects: a) they allowed him to maintain his other relationships and remain not entirely convinced and b) despite his protestations to the contrary, he was charmed by Rex/Pyra's "proper Torna bond" so to speak. It makes some internal sense, just that episode is poorly executed and conceived and just seems so "that anime episode where your enemy is inexplicably your friend." They could've made that a more organic interlude but imo it just kind of jumped the shark there.

I do think that they did Elysium well for the route they chose to take with it (i.e. the route I was kind of annoyed about). I like that it reflects Malos, Jin, and the other guy and reinforces their narratives. (And also Pyra although they don't go into that much). It is interesting to look at the different reactions they all have to generally the same thing:

Spoiler

Klaus arrogantly creates another world, Amalthus has mixed urges to destroy the world and to become the corrupt overlord to reorder it to his bidding, Jin wants to destroy it (as does Malos), and Pyra wants to destroy herself (both because she is alone and because she is a danger to the world)

Which also goes well with Rex's repeated refrain "Of course the world is worth it!"

I also like that they undercut what I dislike about the approach by maintaining a degree of mysticism, going into what I value about the world as I brought up above.

I think I'm fast approaching the end now.

Edit: well, damn cutscene interrupted my chain attack and then left me re-entering the fight to his massive attack with no healer equipped lol. Oh well, I'll try again in a bit. IDK why that cutscene was spliced into the fight...

 

[Sinatar]

You're using Gold Box companion, right?

Click to shrink...

Yup.

 

[Aeana]

Finished Pool of Radiance today, game 1 of my Gold Box playthrough in the bag.

The gold box games are soooooo good. Even now, god damn what a game. If you can deal with the visuals and the interface I highly highly recommend them.

Click to shrink...

I've been feeling a strong desire to play some DOS games. Part of the reason I spent so much time yesterday getting my MIDI setup redone. Now this post. (._. ) I know PoR doesn't have extra sound source support, but I've also never played it in English either. It's another one of those games I've only played in Japanese.

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I should play all of the Gold Box games in English. Hmm, maybe I will.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

I haven't played much due to poor health (nothing serious). What I have played is a little more Spellforce 2. The RTS side isn't my cup of tea, but the hybrid of genres is interesting. Not sure it'll get me to buy Spellforce 3, though.

I booted up Tears of Tiara 2, because I thought that a srpg would be chill. It's been 101% talking and 1% combst, so far.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

I haven't played much due to poor health (nothing serious). What I have played is a little more Spellforce 2. The RTS side isn't my cup of tea, but the hybrid of genres is interesting. Not sure it'll get me to buy Spellforce 3, though.

I booted up Tears of Tiara 2, because I thought that a srpg would be chill. It's been 101% talking and 1% combst, so far.

Click to shrink...

If you like that, you should play Warcraft 3

 

[Deleted member 6137]

If you like that, you should play Warcraft 3

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Good old Warcraft 3. So much DotA was played. That's probably the only reason I stuck with it. I'm awful at RTS games.

:(

 

[Aeana]

I started Elex and I'm definitely liking the challenge level early on. Feeling a bit overwhelmed about where to put attribute and ability points... I've spent nothing so far.
I also checked out the German VA, and while my German is a fair bit rusty, I noticed quite a few lines that said entirely different things between English and German. Doing a little Googling, there seems to be quite a debate about which is better. I find the whole thing really interesting. Sadly, I'm not comfortable enough with my German to actually play the game all the way through, at least not the first time. Might be an interesting second playthrough thing to try though.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

English localization is far from perfect, unfortunately. This concerns a few enemy names, a few quest descriptions and some dialog.

As for ability points, try to get Animal Trophies ASAP. I also recommend raising your stamina.

In ELEX, attribute points are used to unlock your ability to use stuff more than actually making a huge difference in say, damage dealt for example. But at the same time, unlocking the ability to be more effiecent with for example melee weapons, will be very beneficial.

 

[JustSomeone]

What mods are essential for PS:T?
I'm interested only in graphical enhancements, not content additions.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

What mods are essential for PS:T?
I'm interested only in graphical enhancements, not content additions.

Click to shrink...

https://www.gog.com/news/mod_spotlight_planescape_torment_mods_guide

 

[Taruranto]

If you are going to play the EE, nothing. Otherwise, Resolution mod, font mod. Fixpack fixes most bugs left in the game while Tweak pack allows you to uh, tweak some stuff (Like banter frequency).

 

[MoonFrog]

I've never tried to be any good at RTS...I tend to take a more sandbox-y, aesthetic approach to games where you build a civilization. I try to both win and "roleplay" a civilization, rather than figuring out optimal ways to do and achieve things. I just play against the AI and stop upping the difficulty when the AI starts "cheating" rather than being smarter in both RTS and other forms of strategy.

...

I do think the blade system is kind of weird still. One of the things I don't like about the randomness is that weapon abilities are tied to driver as opposed to blade and this leads to situations like, say, getting a healer on a character where he/she only has one healing ability as opposed to two, making them set up roughly like Pyra rather than Dromarch (on Nia). I wish I could pull blades and then assign them to people. I get that doesn't exactly work with the fiction, but I think it would be a better system. IDK. I think if I weren't so focused on the rare blades this wouldn't be an issue so much. But even as someone who doesn't like much of the blade art, I just want to use the rare ones for the most part :P.

As to the combat in general, I think the party play is much improved, as I've said, but I do think the roles are kind of undercooked (I think they were previously less undercooked if I recall the previous games correctly), by which I mean that while there is the break->topple->launch->smash combo and there are arts with situational and role-related effects, there isn't much variety in playstyle and depth of role. When I play as Morag or Tora, I mainly just use my abilities (and I've chosen the tankier set of three of four) as if I were a DPS trying to create aggro and build specials (to create aggro). Beyond that the majority of my actual new gameplay as the tank is trying to position things well to minimize other people's damage. The point is, other than Tora's shield ability, there aren't really tanking cooldowns or taunts or anything. The thing healing adds is the dedicated role to run around collecting potions and (if you are so lucky) a non-potion heal and passive healing (this is probably a bigger change).

I think the strengths of the system are auto-canceling causing you to be invested in watching the flow of your auto-attacks (and arts), the break combo, switching blades, and the blade combos. (And notably, here there are plenty of differences between characters and blades). I enjoy this stuff, but I do wish I felt more of a difference wrt roles.

Also, this is the first game I've played extensively with the Switch pro controller. I think it is nice.

I just have the boss still to kill and miscellaneous stuff to do.

 

[JustSomeone]

Thanks
Should I install unfinished business?

 

[Deleted member 6137]

Thanks
Should I install unfinished business?

Click to shrink...

I've played with it and felt that it doesn't hurt.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

I have spent an ungodly amount of time lately playing STALKER (Don't you even dare, it's absolutely an RPG you......trash mobs you!) and if nobody stops me I will write a master thesis about why this game is an absolute Masterpiece and should have done for shooters what Dark Souls did for Action-RPGs if the world was a just and fair place. I will then, after spending too much time writing this, come to the conclusion that my english is in no way good enough to write this, delete all of it and be annoyed that I wasted so much time on nothing.
Somebody stop me please.

 

[Taruranto]

Thanks
Should I install unfinished business?

Click to shrink...

If it's your second playthrough, go for it. Personally I'm not a fan of unfinished business mods for the first time because in some cases not all cut content was removed because of time constraints.

 

[Sinatar]

Thanks
Should I install unfinished business?

Click to shrink...

Chris Avellone (the lead designer) thinks that all the content in there is awful and was cut for a reason. They approached him when making the EE to see if they should include it or not and he categorically said hell no, so I'd skip it personally.

 

[Sinatar]

Man Curse of the Azure Bonds has reignited my hatred of shambling mounds in a big way.

- They hit hard and have a lot of HP
- They can "engulf" characters which can cause said character to suffocate and die if not released
- They are immune to fire, take half damage from cold and grow stronger when hit by lightning
- They take half damage from all melee attacks (CotAB fudges this a bit, in PnP they take half from edged weapons and *no* damage from blunt)
- They are fairly resistant to other forms of magic as well

God I hate them.

 

[Arulan]

Did you decide to add a Ranger or Paladin to your party?

 

[Sinatar]

Did you decide to add a Ranger or Paladin to your party?

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Nah I'm happy with my party comp.

Fighter
Fighter/Cleric (waaaaaay better then a Paladin in 1st/2nd edition AD&D)
Fighter/Thief
Cleric/Mage
Cleric
Mage

 

[StereoVSN]

If you are going to play the EE, nothing. Otherwise, Resolution mod, font mod. Fixpack fixes most bugs left in the game while Tweak pack allows you to uh, tweak some stuff (Like banter frequency).

Click to shrink...

Is Fixpack needed for P:T EE? I certainly used mods for BG Series EE and Icewind Dale EE.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

I don't understand Dragon's Dogma.
I'm running around as an Assassin, slashing anything I see and it works and is fun, if somewhat monotonous. Right after I slaughter a group of bandits the next group, maybe 15 meters away from them on the road is basically unbeatable because I make almost zero damage and they can kill me with one hit that I don't know how to avoid because I don't see it coming. Before that I spent almost an hour trying to fight some snake-monsters that appear through portals before finally giving up and running away just to discover that the game apparently expected me to run anyway but never told me so?
Am I just bad at this game or what is happening here?

 

[Sinople]

I finished Brandish PSP, which I really enjoyed and reconciled me with this franchise I was avoiding for 25 years because of the bad SFC port. I've already bought IV on DMM during the sales (270 yens, can't go cheaper) and will probably buy II and III on EGG later.

But now I'm finally playing Pillars of Eternity for real after two aborted attempts in the past. I've read mixed reactions over the years, but I'm kind of impressed by it after a couple of hours. From what I've played, I think it's doing great at capturing the infinity engine games feeling while being both more beautiful and more user-friendly. Of course, I can't judge the story, writing and overall design yet, but I have a good feeling.

 

[Prophaniti]

I don't understand Dragon's Dogma.
I'm running around as an Assassin, slashing anything I see and it works and is fun, if somewhat monotonous. Right after I slaughter a group of bandits the next group, maybe 15 meters away from them on the road is basically unbeatable because I make almost zero damage and they can kill me with one hit that I don't know how to avoid because I don't see it coming. Before that I spent almost an hour trying to fight some snake-monsters that appear through portals before finally giving up and running away just to discover that the game apparently expected me to run anyway but never told me so?
Am I just bad at this game or what is happening here?

Click to shrink...

Your pawns were yelling at you to run lol. There is a bandit camp northish of the capital that has high level spawns. Do you know how the leveling works for stat gains and abilities? You might need to lvl another class for more health. Also pro tip if you keep having troubles assassin's can equip explosive arrows and use them in a 3 round burst. Melts just about everything.

 

[Opa-Pa]

I don't understand Dragon's Dogma.
I'm running around as an Assassin, slashing anything I see and it works and is fun, if somewhat monotonous. Right after I slaughter a group of bandits the next group, maybe 15 meters away from them on the road is basically unbeatable because I make almost zero damage and they can kill me with one hit that I don't know how to avoid because I don't see it coming. Before that I spent almost an hour trying to fight some snake-monsters that appear through portals before finally giving up and running away just to discover that the game apparently expected me to run anyway but never told me so?
Am I just bad at this game or what is happening here?

Click to shrink...

It's the bandits with sword and shield right? Yeah they're stupidly strong compared to the rest and had to cheese them. I was a flimsy strider so they pretty much killed me in two hits.

I started the game last week and it's super fun but it starts off a bit clunky. The snake monster is near invincible but you only have to do a certain amount of damage for the battle to end. What I did is do as many quests as possible in the first two before fighting it and even after that I messed up and got my pawn eaten so I had to kill it on my own lol.

Edit: Oh snake monsters as in saurians? I don't remember that part.

 

[Taruranto]

Is Fixpack needed for P:T EE? I certainly used mods for BG Series EE and Icewind Dale EE.

Click to shrink...

I think it is already integrated, but now I'm not sure.

 

[MoonFrog]

Well the final boss was kind of lame in that you couldn't interact with his body in space, but it felt right to finish him with a three round (could've been four but my bursts didn't go as planned :() overkill chain attack from boost mode.

Idk it is a good game. My posts on this and the last page sum up my thoughts on it.

 

[Opa-Pa]

Well the final boss was kind of lame in that you couldn't interact with his body in space, but it felt right to finish him with a three round (could've been four but my bursts didn't go as planned :() overkill chain attack from boost mode.

Idk it is a good game. My posts on this and the last page sum up my thoughts on it.

Click to shrink...

I think I've agreed with most of your impressions on it so far, but I have to ask, did you find the story and cast engaging in the end?

 

[MoonFrog]

Well, I think the most engaging part for me was from the end of chapter 4 through to the cliffs of Morytha. I liked being involved with Morag and the politics of Uraya and Mor Ardain, I liked the Praetorium and its politics, I liked Tantal, and I liked dealing with the Bana and the Nopon. The world of the game really swirls around you in that middle section and the playable characters are all engaged in something that is going on.

I also think the story was better than its (imo) weak moments and even in some of those it usually came out better than I anticipated--more nuanced or more its own thing as we go from case to case. For example, I like it that Jin and Malos were actually allowed to have a relationship despite Jin being set up as the noble enemy and Malos the destroyer. Malos was actually understanding and comforting to him despite urging him on and seeing him waver. Or the turn in the plot I was fearing when I saw Morytha was used for thematic parallelism.

I enjoyed it.

 

[Boddy]

I think I will focus more on playing Tales of Berseria and less on Pillars of Eternity.
The problem with playing several long games at a time is that it feels like I'm not really getting very far in either game.
In ToB after 30 hours I'm now at the start of chapter 5,which should be halfway point, give or take.

I played PoE for 22 hours. Not too long ago I reached the city. I already finished all the side quests I found outside of the city, but I skipped searing falls for now.
The drakes are a good signs that I should come back at a higher level. Currently I'm exploring the maze under the fortress.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

It's the bandits with sword and shield right? Yeah they're stupidly strong compared to the rest and had to cheese them. I was a flimsy strider so they pretty much killed me in two hits.

I started the game last week and it's super fun but it starts off a bit clunky. The snake monster is near invincible but you only have to do a certain amount of damage for the battle to end. What I did is do as many quests as possible in the first two before fighting it and even after that I messed up and got my pawn eaten so I had to kill it on my own lol.

Edit: Oh snake monsters as in saurians? I don't remember that part.

Click to shrink...

I hate how the damage in the game works. It's such a stupid system. It's even worse that there seems to be no way to tell how strong an enemy is before you engage it.

Your pawns were yelling at you to run lol. There is a bandit camp northish of the capital that has high level spawns. Do you know how the leveling works for stat gains and abilities? You might need to lvl another class for more health. Also pro tip if you keep having troubles assassin's can equip explosive arrows and use them in a 3 round burst. Melts just about everything.

Click to shrink...

I must have overheard that :/
I think I kinda know how the leveling works and I'm not a big fan.

 

[Aeana]

Elex aka can't see shit inside these buildings: the game. Torches don't work as well as I'd like them to, either!

 

[Deleted member 6137]

Stygian is looking mighty good.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

Demo is also live, it seems!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/779290/Stygian_Reign_of_the_Old_Ones/

 

[ara]

I'm not a massive fan of the art style, but a turn-based RPG in a H.P. Lovecraft world full of cosmic horrors? Fuck yeah I'm in.

 

[Deleted member 419]

Hi all, so after a few days of letting it sit, I think we're going to try to move forward with the book club idea.

The goal is pretty much to select an RPG that very few of us have probably played, and set a time frame where people can choose to play it if they want, knowing that there'll probably be at least a few other people in this community who are playing it at the same time. So of course there isn't any kind of obligation to participate, but if we're going through a game you're interested in giving a spin, it's worth participating since ideally we'll basically have a mini-OT for it going on somewhere. Probably just posted in here, but potentially also in the discord - which you can get an invite to from Luminaire if you didn't know already :)

I think, so as not to clutter the thread up discussing logistics, I think we'll probably discuss how to go about initially selecting an RPG in the discord server instead. If you're not in there, I'll report back once we hash something out.

 

[Sinatar]

 

[Box of Kittens]

I think I had my easiest run through the Ice Cave (FFI) ever. Never encountered any Mages and killed the Eye before it took a turn. Instead just encountered tons of undead mobs, who easily fell to a barrage of Harm and Fire spells. Never had to revive anyone. Kinda drives home how much of the challenge of that game is dependent on the RNG.

 

[Sinatar]

IGN's got a gameplay demonstration up of Underworld Ascendant as well.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2018/01/17/underworld-ascendant-multiple-choice-gameplay

 

[Aeana]

"Check out all of these different ways you can approach this situation"
"None of them worked"

That doesn't seem like a very good way to demo the game!
I'm really glad I backed it, though; it's looking pretty good.

 

[Ascheroth]

You guys are awakening my Gothic/Risen/Spellforce itch again.
Will probably have to scratch it after finishing some more JRPGs.

 

[MoonFrog]

You know, I love Final Fantasy music. I also love the menus. And the spell names (at least the English ones--no idea how faithful they are).

I was reminded of this.

Always been a Cure, Cura, Curaga person though. Not a big Bolt, Bolt2, Bolt3 person.

 

[Aeana]

Reading around, it looks like everything I really like about Elex (and other PB games) is exactly what a lot of people dislike. For instance, there are many complaints about feeling too weak or not being able to pwn noobs at level 1, but I think one of the things PB does best is creating a world that feels dangerous, especially at the beginning. Now, Elex does seem to have strayed from the enemy power gating philosophy that was prevalent in Gothic 1/2 and Risen, which does make it a bit more confusing... but I think it's cool. You can't pick fights with everything (or damn near anything) early on, and you're going to have to find ways around really difficult enemies just to reach quest objectives. And there's the usual crop of complaints about the combat being bad, but I've seen this for every PB game going back to Gothic 1... and I just don't agree. You can't mash, and timing your hits gives you a major advantage. I really like that about it.

 

[Deleted member 419]

I think I had my easiest run through the Ice Cave (FFI) ever. Never encountered any Mages and killed the Eye before it took a turn. Instead just encountered tons of undead mobs, who easily fell to a barrage of Harm and Fire spells. Never had to revive anyone. Kinda drives home how much of the challenge of that game is dependent on the RNG.

Click to shrink...

The Ice Cave never gave me too much trouble for some reason. I think I just get consistently lucky with it for some reason.

I've never gotten Warmech either though...I've always wanted to fight him :(

 

[MoonFrog]

Tbh though I started FFIV DS today. Yes, I'm just adding to my plate but I wanted a portable RPG.

And it is weird. I have a bad visual memory or I at least don't tend to think of things or back on things in coherent visual form but I'm seeing the beginning of FFIV sprites as I'm playing this. I miss them :(. But the music is here!

I wasn't quite expecting playing a Final Fantasy again to feel so like being with an old friend again. I haven't played an old Final Fantasy in some time.

I'll go to Ikebukuro tomorrow and face my fate as a (temporarily!!!!) chaos or law aligned person but tonight is going to be Final Fantasy. (I'm going law for a bit, having encountered the decision. I have a lot of chaos demons though)