The Last To Post Wins!

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Thanks, I will!

 

Now I just need a Falcom figure.

Unfortunately aside of Estelle and Renne neondroids I have not seen a PVC figure yet.

And if they really should exist, maaaaaaan, I do not want to know their price.

[Interdimensional Observer]

12 hours ago, Armagon said:

I wasn't aware that solar powered games existed. How does that work?

The GBA carts had a special solar sensor embedded in them.:

Spoiler

It's that little dot in the middle of the top between "Y" and "A" I think.

The games still drained your GBA's battery like any other, but the solar sensor was a core gameplay element of the Boktai trilogy (the third game never leaving Japan). 

When UV rays from the Sun (it has to be ultraviolet light- no lamps, unless its a blacklight, will work) hit the solar sensor, the game adjusts its sunlight meter in accordance to the strength of the UV light.

• You need at least one unit of sunlight registered to recharge the main character's essential weapon the Gun Del Sol. If outside in the game world, you can recharge it anywhere, and strong enough sunlight will passively replenish it, but when indoors you need to find skylights. And no sunlight will stop you from initiating the second phase of Immortal boss battles- the Pile Driver.
• However, a handful of puzzles want you to have less or no sunlight. And, if you play in too much strong sunlight, the Gun Del Sol will Overheat and be briefly unusable until it cools down.
• The game does have a day-night system operating on real world time, and you can set your IRL geographic location based on a handful of options to adjust the Solar Sensor UV sensitivity.
  • Playing at night is harder than day, but there are places you can bank extra sunlight energy away and draw on later. Solar Nuts can be consumed to replenish a little sunlight anywhere and anytime. Lastly, the first game is non-intense action with bosses, but with stealth being an absolutely viable alternative outside of bosses. And you don't need to consume so much solar energy if you focus on avoiding foes.

Since few people have solar panels attached to their PCs, patches are available that lets the player manually adjust the sunlight reading at any time when emulating the Boktai games.

The DS spiritual sequel to Boktai called Lunar Knights did away with the solar sensor and swapped to its own non-real world day/night + sun/moonlight + weather system. Not to mention that while Aaron the new sun gun boy continued to need solar energy for all his attacks, Lucian the dark swordsman only needs moonlight to power his slashes if he infuses his weapons with an element.

Edited September 21, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Strullemia]

The only figure I've gotten so far is a Saber Alter figure. I would have loved to get a FE Figure instead but the only thing they had at the convention I went to was a Camilla figurine.

---

On Ch. 15 BE Maddening and I just did the Bernadetta/Petra Paralogue. Didn't have to restart but it sure as hell was nerve wrecking at times.

[DragonFlames]

On 9/19/2019 at 8:04 PM, Shrimperor said:

Ah, the Robot Magnet

A pervy ninja robot no less.
Robot Jiraya?

18 hours ago, Armagon said:

Wait, when you mean the original Mario Bros, do you mean Super Mario Bros, you know, world 1-1 and all that.

That's the one. They offered it as a free download on 3DS quite some time ago.
I haven't beaten it to this day. 😛

---

So... apparently, little alchemist girl Rorona can beat experienced knight Sterky in a fight.
Nice.
Dat ship tease, though; Sterky says he still wants Rorona to need him despite her whooping his ass. Aww.

On that note: do you know how I personally recognize a good game? The moment I realize it's going to be over soon, I feel a little sad. Such is the case with Atelier Rorona at the moment.

---

On the topic of 7th Dragon III Code VFD, that game is in my personal top 5 3DS games alongside Stella Glow, Etrian Odyssey Nexus, Shin Megami Tensei IV, and Bravely Second in no particular order.

[Strullemia]

1 minute ago, DragonFlames said:

A pervy ninja robot no less.
Robot Jiraya?

That's the one. They offered it as a free download on 3DS quite some time ago.
I haven't beaten it to this day. 😛

---

So... apparently, little alchemist girl Rorona can beat experienced knight Sterky in a fight.
Nice.
Dat ship tease, though; Sterky says he still wants Rorona to need him despite her whooping his ass. Aww.

On that note: do you know how I personally recognize a good game? The moment I realize it's going to be over soon, I feel a little sad. Such is the case with Atelier Rorona at the moment.

---

On the topic of 7th Dragon III Code VFD, that game is in my personal top 5 3DS games alongside Stella Glow, Etrian Odyssey Nexus, Shin Megami Tensei IV, and Bravely Second in no particular order.

That was my first SMT game I played and I played through the game and got the Chaos and Order ending but the neutral route had such specific requirements that I didn't bother.

I'm still interested in the SMT Switch game, whenever that releases.

[DragonFlames]

Just now, Hekselka said:

That was my first SMT game I played and I played through the game and got the Chaos and Order ending but the neutral route had such specific requirements that I didn't bother.

I got Neutral on my first try just by picking the dialogue options the way I would do it irl.
The requirements thing is very annoying, I agree. I guess it has to do with the fact that the Neutral path is the hardest one: you need to beat both final bosses of the other two routes on top of completing every quest in the game, which might be rough on a first playthrough.

2 minutes ago, Hekselka said:

I'm still interested in the SMT Switch game, whenever that releases.

Me too. I hope it will release at all.
At this point, I have my doubts.

[Nobody]

man, i want SMT V Switch so much =(

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Nobody said:

man, i want SMT V Switch so much =(

Same here.

Sure, Strange Journey Redux wasn't... great, but Atlus actually improves its franchises with each entry (Persona 4: aesthetically boring dungeons -> Persona 5: visually amazing dungeons; Etrian Odyssey IV: slow as balls, kind of clunky -> Etrian Odyssey Untold: smooth as silk, options to speed up gameplay), so I do have a good feeling about getting SMTV...

if it ever comes out, that is.

[Armagon]

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The GBA carts had a special solar sensor embedded in them.:

  Reveal hidden contents

It's that little dot in the middle of the top between "Y" and "A" I think.

The games still drained your GBA's battery like any other, but the solar sensor was a core gameplay element of the Boktai trilogy (the third game never leaving Japan). 

When UV rays from the Sun (it has to be ultraviolet light- no lamps, unless its a blacklight, will work) hit the solar sensor, the game adjusts its sunlight meter in accordance to the strength of the UV light.

• You need at least one unit of sunlight registered to recharge the main character's essential weapon the Gun Del Sol. If outside, you can recharge it anywhere, and strong enough sunlight will passively replenish it, but when indoors you need to find skylights. And no sunlight will stop you from initiating the second phase of Immortal boss battles- the Pile Driver.
• However, a handful of puzzles want you to have less or no sunlight. And, if you play in too much strong sunlight, the Gun Del Sol will Overheat and be briefly unusable until it cools down.
• The game does have a day-night system operating on real world time, and you can set your IRL geographic location based on a handful of options to adjust the Solar Sensor UV sensitivity.
  • Playing at night is harder than day, but there are places you can bank extra sunlight energy away and draw on later. Solar Nuts can be consumed to replenish a little sunlight anywhere and anytime. Lastly, the first game is non-intense action with bosses, but with stealth being an absolutely viable alternative outside of bosses. And you don't need to consume so much solar energy if you focus on avoiding foes.

That sounds intriguing but at the same time, needlessly complicated and restrictive. Imagine trying to play this game in Alaska during the winter months, where there's no sunlight for like 6 months.

However, i have to give props for coming up with such a unique system. Am i correct in assuming the Boktai trilogy were the only GBA games to be solar powered or where there other, possibly more obscure titles that relied on the great power of the sun?

3 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

On that note: do you know how I personally recognize a good game? The moment I realize it's going to be over soon, I feel a little sad.

I get the same feeling, especially if it's a game that doesn't have a post-game. Once it ends, it ends. The worst part of playing a game you like is that it ends. But then you look back on the enjoyment the game gave you and it balances out.

3 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

On the topic of 7th Dragon III Code VFD, that game is in my personal top 5 3DS games alongside Stella Glow, Etrian Odyssey Nexus, Shin Megami Tensei IV, and Bravely Second in no particular order.

Me personally, i think 7th Dragon III is in my top 10 3DS games but not in the top 5. I don't know where it specifically ranks. My top 10 3DS games, in no order:

• Kid Icarus: Uprising
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3D
• Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
• Super Smash Bros 4.
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
• Azure Striker Gunvolt
• Azure Striker Gunvolt 2
• Fire Emblem Awakening
• Fire Emblem Fates
• 7th Dragon III
• Honorable mention: Rune Factory 4

3 hours ago, Hekselka said:

I'm still interested in the SMT Switch game, whenever that releases.

3 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Me too. I hope it will release at all.
At this point, I have my doubts.

3 hours ago, Nobody said:

man, i want SMT V Switch so much =(

Hey look on the bright side: though it was two years ago, SMT 5 did get a teaser trailer. You know what hasn't gotten anything? Pikmin 4, a game that was supposedly "almost done" four years ago. I don't care for Pikmin but i feel bad for it's fans.

But for real, even as someone who's never played an SMT game (or Atlus in general), where is SMT5? A friend of mine thinks that it's Atlus devoting too much time to Persona 5 and it does seem that Persona is Atlus' main priority but even then, we haven't even gotten updates. I'm gonna take a guess that SMT5 news will come after Atlus is done with Persona 5 (because we still have Royal and the Musou spin-off coming up). I'm making that guess based off what happened to FF7R, where it got a trailer and then radio silence for years and it wasn't until after Kingdom Hearts 3 came out that news started pouring in again. Which does make it a case of announcing a game too early but it happens.

Fucked up how Kingdom Hearts 3 and FF7R both got release dates before SMT5.

 

Edited September 21, 2019 by Armagon

[Acacia Sgt]

Solar powered game, huh. Heh, fascinating.

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

The requirements thing is very annoying, I agree. I guess it has to do with the fact that the Neutral path is the hardest one: you need to beat both final bosses of the other two routes on top of completing every quest in the game, which might be rough on a first playthrough.

Not every quest. I know for a fact that you don't need to complete the second fight with the Red Knight, the one with Beelzebub. Which is no small mercy, since the Lord of the Flies can Megidoloan spam.

And imagine if the Neutral Ending required you find and kill every Fiend. Ooooooooh the tedium!

 

4 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Etrian Odyssey IV: slow as balls, kind of clunky -> Etrian Odyssey Untold: smooth as silk, options to speed up gameplay)

I should go back and remind myself what EOIV was like, but then again, I still haven't touched Nexus yet. Partly b/c I want to finish 7th D 2020-II first, only one dungeon crawler open at any time.

Although I'd take any clunk in IV over U2's bosses. I like the game, but certain bosses make me want to go Casual. They just aren't fun. And, for my Expert Story no-Alter Class, Scylllllllllllllllllla!

I still haven't finished the game. And I attribute my terrible Classic Expert team's victories over the above and Harpuia to pure dumb luck.

 

...Speaking of EO, besides SMTV, Atlus hasn't said anything of the Etrian Odyssey successor they've promised too. All they showed for it before were a bunch of silhouettes, presumably for new classes, nothing else.

 

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

That sounds intriguing but at the same time, needlessly complicated and restrictive. Imagine trying to play this game in Alaska during the winter months, where there's no sunlight for like 6 months.

I recall Nintendo Power did one of their sweepstakes for the first game. Not only did you get a free game copy, you got a free vacation in Hawaii, perfect for soaking in the rays that slay the undead.🏖️

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

However, i have to give props for coming up with such a unique system. Am i correct in assuming the Boktai trilogy were the only GBA games to be solar powered or where there other, possibly more obscure titles that relied on the great power of the sun?

Nope, just those three from what I remember. It was a novel attempt to get the homebodies gamers usually are out into the fresh air. But nowadays we have Pokemon GO for that.

Although I'm debating whether standing in the sun would help or hurt if you played on an original Game Boy Advance, with its infamously dark screen. Did the ambient light help, or did too much sun and glare make it impossible to see anything? I forget what it was like.

[Acacia Sgt]

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Although I'm debating whether standing in the sun would help or hurt if you played on an original Game Boy Advance, with its infamously dark screen. Did the ambient light help, or did too much sun and glare make it impossible to see anything? I forget what it was like.

It was hard to see, yes. At least from my experience.

[Armagon]

Using my PSP emulator, i decided to relive some childhood memories

When it came to the PSP, this was my favorite game as a kid. I love Star Wars but back then, i was borderline obsessed with the franchise. Anyway, i decided to replay the game after 10 years to see if it still holds up. On the gameplay front, it's just like i remember it. Combos, Force abilities, the ability to freely change your lightsaber's color (i fucking love this feature). Graphically, whoooooooo boy, the graphics are not as good as i remember them to be. The character models have aged pretty badly. Darth Vader aside (because he has a mask), the characters can barely emote. Actually, i don't even think they can. All emotion comes from the voice acting which also isn't that great. I didn't pay attention to voice acting as a kid but looking back at the game now, it's voice acting is an oof.

Also, while the game itself runs fine, i have this purple overlay covering most of the screen.

It's not affecting my ability to play the game at all but my friend says i should find a fix because, as he put it, "no amount of childhood nostalgia is worth having to look through a game where Mace Windu just performed lasik on you". As funny as that is, i don't mind but i would like a fix a lot.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I got reminded that I owned an Etrian Odyssey game (IV). It was my first JRPG which was not Fire Emblem. I mean comparing them is like comparing apples with bananas, but this was the first real round based RPG I got. With the lack of experience it became frustrating early on (against first boss). I lend to an ex-workmate, but forgot to take it back. Well, it has been five years ago, so RIP. Idk if I could play any part of this franchise today since I still struggle with this kind of genre. Final Fantasy, Octopath Traveler and Shining Resonance Refrain gave me a hard time probably because I do not let the gameplay into me.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

The Ingrid x Dorothea paralogue chapter has been probably the most disgusting one I have played yet. Had to turn back the time 6-7 times and now I only have two left. 

Since next chapter is Battle of the Houses, and since I already had trouble with that map on normal, I think to lower down difficulty now. 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Also Dimitri and Lysithea are totally speedscrewed. 

Lysi is pretty much like hard mode Micaiah right now, just with the difference of oneshotting people. 

Most units I expected to turn out great like Felix or Hilda ended in a disappointment and bench as a result. 

Edited September 21, 2019 by Ingrid Brandl Galatea

[Strullemia]

4 minutes ago, Ingrid Brandl Galatea said:

Also Dimitri and Lysithea are totally speedscrewed. 

Lysi is pretty much like hard mode Micaoah right now, just with the difference of oneshotting people. 

Most units I expected to turn out great like Felix or Hilda ended in a disappointment and bench as a result. 

Lysithea doesn't really suffer that much if she gets spd screwed on maddening. Just give her the Thyreus staff and she'll hit so damn hard with some of her spells that she almost one shots units that other units can't even one round. She's super good and she was so vital in the Petra paralogue that I almost lost all of her spell uses.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I mean, yeah she is an only player phase unit, but it is not easy to hide her against bows and pass guys. 

APetra's paralogue was already a pain in the ass in normal. Worst paralogue tied with Marianne's. 

The only real good units of mine who have a serious enemy phase are Byleth and Catherine. Speaking of Catherine her bases are so fantastic, can even oneround with a training sword. 

[Strullemia]

1 hour ago, Ingrid Brandl Galatea said:

I mean, yeah she is an only player phase unit, but it is not easy to hide her against bows and pass guys. 

APetra's paralogue was already a pain in the ass in normal. Worst paralogue tied with Marianne's. 

The only real good units of mine who have a serious enemy phase are Byleth and Catherine. Speaking of Catherine her bases are so fantastic, can even oneround with a training sword. 

True, which is why she was a lot more difficult to use in the earlygame when she didn't have the Thyreus staff. After she got that staff everything got so much easier.

The biggest problem in Petra's paralogue is when the reinforcement show up they show up with too many, they're way too strong to kill all in one turn AND they can probably one round at least one of your units.

I was lucky and could kill two of them with Lysithea + Dorothea's dance and then I gambit the other two. The only other guy could only attack Dorothea one time and it didn't kill. The rest of the map was still tricky but manageable.

[DragonFlames]

8 hours ago, Armagon said:

I get the same feeling, especially if it's a game that doesn't have a post-game. Once it ends, it ends. The worst part of playing a game you like is that it ends. But then you look back on the enjoyment the game gave you and it balances out.

This is very true.

8 hours ago, Armagon said:

Hey look on the bright side: though it was two years ago, SMT 5 did get a teaser trailer. You know what hasn't gotten anything? Pikmin 4, a game that was supposedly "almost done" four years ago. I don't care for Pikmin but i feel bad for it's fans.

But for real, even as someone who's never played an SMT game (or Atlus in general), where is SMT5? A friend of mine thinks that it's Atlus devoting too much time to Persona 5 and it does seem that Persona is Atlus' main priority but even then, we haven't even gotten updates. I'm gonna take a guess that SMT5 news will come after Atlus is done with Persona 5 (because we still have Royal and the Musou spin-off coming up). I'm making that guess based off what happened to FF7R, where it got a trailer and then radio silence for years and it wasn't until after Kingdom Hearts 3 came out that news started pouring in again. Which does make it a case of announcing a game too early but it happens.

Yeah, the Pikmin fans are pretty screwed on that front.

Persona is arguably Atlus' most successful franchise after Persona 5, so I can understand if they give it priority. And since Persona started out as a spin-off to SMT, I imagine it has mostly the same team working on it - which is why I agree with you: when Persona 5 The Royal and the Musou spin-off are over and done with, I expect to hear news about SMTV.

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Not every quest. I know for a fact that you don't need to complete the second fight with the Red Knight, the one with Beelzebub. Which is no small mercy, since the Lord of the Flies can Megidoloan spam.

And imagine if the Neutral Ending required you find and kill every Fiend. Ooooooooh the tedium!

Thanks for the correction! I did them anyway, because I thought you had to do them. Was a nightmare and a half, but I managed.
Fun fact about the Beelzebub fight: It only starts spamming Megidolaon when you have a way of preventing it from executing it's main pattern, which is put a status effect on your party, then use an attack that puts anyone with a status effect to 1 HP. The key to win this battle is to have two demons with immunities to status effects and one that doesn't have them. Have at least one of your immunity demons know Salvation and you're golden.

Oh god, the fiends. Every SMT-players worst nightmare.

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I should go back and remind myself what EOIV was like, but then again, I still haven't touched Nexus yet. Partly b/c I want to finish 7th D 2020-II first, only one dungeon crawler open at any time.

Although I'd take any clunk in IV over U2's bosses. I like the game, but certain bosses make me want to go Casual. They just aren't fun. And, for my Expert Story no-Alter Class, Scylllllllllllllllllla!

I still haven't finished the game. And I attribute my terrible Classic Expert team's victories over the above and Harpuia to pure dumb luck.

Yeah, the damage sponginess of EO2U's bosses is pretty bad. I still love EO2U because the story is great. I admit, I never played that game on Classic Mode, but I want to do so someday soon.
The Story Mode-team is also pretty OP when you know what to do with them. They can practically soft-lock most enemies and destroy them in a matter of minutes.
EDIT: For me, the hardest fight in EO2U is the one right before Scylla.

Edited September 21, 2019 by DragonFlames

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Could beat the Battle of the Houses against my expectations in my very first attempt. Just had to sacrifice some allies. With five units left I could take out the rest. It makes up the suffering I had in that stupid volcano. 

[Shrimpica]

Bloodstained Music so gooooooooooooooood :3

[Strullemia]

10 minutes ago, Ingrid Brandl Galatea said:

Could beat the Battle of the Houses against my expectations in my very first attempt. Just had to sacrifice some allies. With five units left I could take out the rest. It makes up the suffering I had in that stupid volcano. 

Being the idiot that I am I forgot that you can lose units without consequences so I ended up restarting my first try even though I could have easily finished it <_>

But yeah that map wasn't as difficult as I expected. The Miklan chapter was far more difficult.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Chapter 5 was ok, only took lots of time. Since I knew about ambush spawn and the locations of the reinforcements I was well prepared. It was tricky to ignore the archer rangers, but not too hard with some focus. The true boss had tons of HP, but Byleth could take two hits. Used Ingrid and Dmitri to stun him not to come too close to my weaklings.

The chapters seem to become easier since the cut of ally and enemy level becomes closer and closer. Byleth and Lys are pretty much at the same level as the enemy right now. 

[Shrimpica]

I win, because i have pudding