Whatcha Been Playing?

[Feirsteax]

Apparently they're called gracious and glorious. Google them. I can't figure out how to do it.

About Wonderful101, Its definitely a bit rough around the edges. But I like the core gameplay. stringing together various morphs in 1 combo and tracing out huge lines to make bigger weapons felt really satisfying.
The camera angle was a pretty good compromise for not having a rright stick available. I thought it worked well, let you see the entire battlefield and all your people at once. You don't have to turn around and point the camera at the enemies and stuff. You need to zoom it out every time though. The default position is too close. There are times when the camera is really bad in it but for the most part I was OK with it.

Its last mission was on par with bayonetta's too. Maybe even more OTT. It was fantastic.

[Scrustle]

Ah yes, Gracious and Glorious. I found those to be some of the more aggravating enemies in the game. I don't remember them ever being immune to Witch Time though. Pretty sure I've pulled it off with them successfully before. They just attack so fast you have to have really good reactions to get the timing right. But usually my tactic with that type of enemy is to always keep moving. Sometimes I would whittle down their health by shooting from a distance, but that makes you too still sometimes, and they can jump at you. So what I tended to do was kind of take passes at them. Quickly running in close and doing only a few hits, and then running off in the panther form to avoid any retaliation they might try to pose. Rinse and repeat. Probably not the most skillful or elegant way to deal with them, but one I found reliable.

And the thing with TW101 isn't really that it's rough round the edges for me. I just think I don't want what it's selling. Even if it was a perfectly designed and polished version of what it's trying to be, I think I still wouldn't enjoy it. Like I just don't enjoy certain genres, I think TW101 just can't give me what I want either. Also, I found the camera made it really hard to keep track of all my little people. I often can't see them very well when they got scattered. I think how colourful the game is might be adding to that problem too.

[Feirsteax]

Yeah, I can understand that. Fair enough if you just don't enjoy the gameplay.

Speaking of unenjoyable, I heard from numerous sources that Lost Odyssey was a really good JRPG. Well I've only started but so far its annoying random encounters and an actual stereotypical angsty teen protagonist. I hope things pick up soon!

[Scrustle]

I really didn't enjoy Lost Odyssey either. But I hear people say that it's not a rare thing. Even people who like it admit it's a very traditional JRPG, with all the usual bugbears in force. So if you're not in to that then it's highly unlikely you'll enjoy it. If you're okay with that kind of stuff, then it's supposed to be really good.

[Flabyo]

Lost Odyssey is *incredibly* formulaic from a gameplay perspective. If you don't like that kind of very traditional JRPG you won't like it.

It does have a VERY impressive story, and that's what makes it work for a lot of people.

I'd say if you're after a decent JRPG to play that's got a decent story and is fun to play you should go for The Last Story on the Wii.

Hell, there's even a C&R podcast on that one coming up soon... (love that game)

[Feirsteax]

I see. Well i managed to get through nier easily enough and the gameplay wasnt so great there either. I do actually enjoy a bit of final fantasy turn based combat but random encounters are Hell.
Have you played xenoblade chronicles? His does that compare to the last story?

[Roy42]

All three of the Operation: Rainfall titles are fantastic and well worth the price of admission.

[Flabyo]

Xenoblade is meant to be very good indeed. I have it, but haven't yet set aside the time to play it as it's a big one.

Last Story is around 20 hours though, it feels just about long enough that it never overstays it's welcome like a lot of JRPGs do.

[Roy42]

Xenoblade is meant to be very good indeed. I have it, but haven't yet set aside the time to play it as it's a big one.

I've been told multiple times that it's not as long as you'd think; doing every single sidequest in the game will run the playtime up over 100 hours, apparently, but the main storyline isn't that long at all.

Last Story is around 20 hours though, it feels just about long enough that it never overstays it's welcome like a lot of JRPGs do.

It achieves this by having almost zero filler. With the exception of two dungeons (that are fun to play through anyway) and post-game content, everything moves the story along and you never need to grind. The fact that your party members will always gain EXP, even if they are super underlevelled from not having been in the party for the last few quests and get killed almost immediately in each fight, and thus very easily catch up in levels by gaining three or four levels per fight, helps the pace.

[Scrustle]

The Last Story is only 20 hours? I might be further through the game than I thought I was then. I haven't played it in forever though.

Could someone perhaps enlighten me as to how far I've got left to go? Only tiny spoilers, but I'll hide it anyway just in case.

Spoiler: show

I'm at the bit where you have to go through some underground dungeons to escape from a prison.

[ratsoalbion]

I can't exactly remember but I think my play-through finished at around 27 hours.

[Flabyo]

Scrustle: About two thirds of the way through. Maybe a little more.

[Roy42]

I'd say you're closer to halfway.

[Flabyo]

Spent my evening coaxing a Megadrive I picked up off eBay into life. Needed opening up and cleaning out before all the loose carts I picked up off eBay worked. Going to attack it with craft knife and soldering iron tomorrow to turn it into a multi region switchable one, because no-one should be forced to play Sonic in 50Hz, like, ever.

The box of carts had some stuff I've not played before and some stuff that I had... some quick one-liners on them...

Sonic, Sonic 2 - Still great. Will be greater once the thing is running at the right speed.
Mercs - Loved this one as a kid, but I don't remember it being anywhere near this hard... top down shooter, known as Commando 2 in Japan.
Thunderforce 4 - Wow, this is pretty. Not seen the machine pushed this far before.
Rise of the Robots - Yes, this game really is as bad as everyone says it is. People actually paid 40 quid or more for this at the time. It beggars belief.
Lots of versions of FIFA - they're all much faster than I remember, I guess I am getting old.
Empire of Steel - interesting SteamPunk side scrolling shooter, definitely one I'll come back to.
Flashback - It's Flashback. It's great. It destroys the recent HD remake.
James Bond: The Duel - This so wants to be Rolling Thunder it's painful. It's failing, hard.
Wiz 'n' Liz - I had a demo of this on my Mega CD way back and remember really liking it. At the moment I can't figure out what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm sure it'll come back to me.
The Terminator - Damn this game is hard. A friend had this one back in the day, and I'm sure he got further than I'm managing at the moment.
Talmit's Adventure - saccharine sweet platformer from Namco. It's not great but it could be worse, it could be Wonder Momo.

I'm really trying to track down some of the titles from the end of the generation where I'd already switched it up to the PS1. Things like Subterrania, Story of Thor, Landstalker etc... I wouldn't mind Rocket Knight Adventure and Gunstar Heroes as well if I can find them on the cheap.

I'll also continue to bid on cheap boxes of loose carts on eBay.

[James]

I'm on countdown watch; as many games as I can fit in before the 14th of March. I'm trying to fit in Demon's Souls (replay for Issue 118), Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow, Resident Evil 4 and a few Burnouts. I think that's manageable, but I dare say I'll get distracted along the way. [No, Dark Souls! Not now! ]

[DomsBeard]

Been playing Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. It's really great and I'll pick up Far Cry 3 once I've finished it.

I bought UMVC3 in the sale The to for £4 to give it another chance after having MVC3. Still dislike it I'd rather spend my time with SSFIV, when I play that when I lose I at least understand why I've lost. When you're sat being pummelled on UMVC3 and you have no idea why or how it's too frustrating.

[Baron Phil]

I'm trying to play through Nier but getting very distracted by Spelunky.

[Flabyo]

It's way too late to get into Marvel vs Capcom 3 now, the online game is now SO reliant on being able to punish a single mistake with a character killing combo that there's no room for a new player to grow.

[DomsBeard]

Yeah I figured that out, I can put SSFIV on after not playing for months and win some games. Looking forward to Ultra.

[Todinho]

I did it! Finnaly managed to get Policenauts running on a emulator with the english patch! The sound keeps cutting out for some reason but other than that it's fine so im looking foward to get going at that if it's anything like Snatcher I know it's gonna be good and speaking of Snatcher I listened to Suda's51 2011 SDatcher Radio Drama and found it pretty good you can tell by a mile away that Suda is writing it but it still manages to fell like the Snatcher universe it also helps when Kojima is looking over your shoulder I guess,he also does a character in it and it's pretty good,by the way the japanese voice actor for Snake,Akio Otsuka,voices the main character in this and he is the best thing in it.

Other than that Im still making my way through Ni Nu Kuni and I think im about halfway point the story is still kinda of meh but the game has really picked up for me thanks to introduction to some more interesting characters and locations with the boss fights are being quite fun as well,I know people complain about difficulty spikes on them but im on easy mode and fighting everything I come across so while the boss fights are still a challenge they are not impossible.