Lurker > azuarc

I almost ruined mine yesterday, too, until nudged by folks in discord at T-minus 30 minutes.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I'm a little amazed that so many people are holding the ending against DRV3 this strongly. Were the games ever really about the ending? Was it anything more than a framing device?

The first game has Junko pushing the world into the madness of total despair with the most horrible, unspeakable tragedy ever, and then sneaking into Light's Hope anyway and hijacking the game, making everyone think she was dead, and then pulling the strings from behind. Part of that's a cool plot twist, but otherwise it's incredibly dumb.

The second game has "but it was all a dream" in the form of a VR simulation. Oh, and every one of the characters was secretly a terrible person before they had their minds wiped and were dragged here.

Compared to that, was 3 really so terrible? Was there ever any hope for an ending based on anything else? Can you think of a way to frame a Danganronpa game with any other endings that don't sound equally loony and bad? If you're angry, it's only because this one's actually semi-plausible. In our current zeitgeist, I could absolutely see a reality TV show where the actors have to give up their past and then consequently their lives, just because it makes for good TV drama. But again, I have to maintain that the ending's not the point of the games. Or if it is, then I'm seriously missing the boat.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I find it a little strange you'd do research on build guides for this game, but I dismissed it as wanting to see how to make a niche character idea work at first. Just how many guides did you read?

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

UltimaterializerX posted...

Twitter, Reddit, 4chan.

You forgot tumblr.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

9.5

This is what the other Danganronpa games should aspire toward. Docking half a point for the stupidity of the third case. Everything else about 3 was great.

swordz9 posted...

If it was just based on the first chapter it would be much higher, but this was easily the worst story of the DR trilogy. The writing for the characters was almost entirely terrible and every chapter was basically worse than the one before it with the ending being downright terrible.

Funny, this is pretty close to how I feel about 2, except replace first with fifth.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

voting, super quick edition

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Fogbeasts
Glessing Way!

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

6.6

Decent worldbuilding. Okay premise. A lot of junk in the middle. The game is absorbing because of the gestalt atmosphere, but I don't know I'd say the story is that great.

God, I'm gonna have a field day trying to rate Character Recruitment Sim 2010.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

MrSmartGuy posted...

Had to save this one for its own post, because it's probably 999's greatest claim to fame. Everything on the top screen is what Junpei sees, says, and is thinking. Everything on the bottom screen is what Akane sees, is thinking, and other narrations she is projecting onto Junpei's story.

Huh. Having played on Steam, I have no idea what you mean. Is that just for the ending, or throughout the entire game?

andylt posted...

So, June's 6 actually being a 9 is a great twist, as is the realisation that her and Santa are together the whole game. But it is a little undercut for me by Santa's 3 being a 0. Like you can't pull the 'ah see, you actually read it upside down the whole time!' then immediately follow it with 'yeah this one's just a flat out lie'. Also this means there were two 9 bracelets but no 3 the whole time I think, which is kinda meh.

It means there are three 9 bracelets, and no 3 or 6. Remember, 0 and 9 are equivalent.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I never do enchanting or smithing, personally. You can make some really broken equipment if you stack the effects of all three together, after making alchemy potions that improve your alchemy, etc, but I never felt like the game was so hard that this was important. In fact, quite the opposite -- the game doesn't directly level with you like Oblivion, but there are things that get more challenging as you level and if you work on the crafting skills and don't get more powerful from them (or any other skill for that matter) it can leave you feeling incredibly challenged. Because they did away with stats in this game, which I thought was an incredibly dumb move, generalists really suffer in Skyrim. That said, an unarmed Khajiit doesn't really use a weapon skill. You just use the one perk in...heavy armor, I think? And it looks like you've already got that covered.

If you're working on alchemy, you could just craft healing potions. I wasn't terribly impressed with restoration in Skyrim. The basic heal is really slow later, and fast healing seemed to blow through mana much faster than it was worth. But I also wasn't playing an actual caster, so I didn't want to invest my level-ups into magicka.

There's no lock-on mechanic, but fight mechanics are pretty basic to begin with. The only thing I miss having something like that for is that a lock-on sometimes helps you find enemies. It's not uncommon in a group to lose one enemy completely and have to go hunting all over to find the red dot. Or simply not be able to fast travel.

How are you playing through the world? The first time I played, I ignored the suggestion to head north and just went from map marker to map marker. I ended up exploring most of the Falkreath area before ever getting to Whiterun. (And then I got all kinds of confused when a certain quest instantly took me to Markarth because I didn't know where anything was or even how to use the wagons outside town.)

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Yup. Including Hawaii.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

It's one o' them states west of the Mississippi. They all look alike. Yes, all of them. No matter where you go.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I'm of a mixed opinion. He should at least let those developers hire a landscaper to repave the driveway and tidy up the trees. But given the old, beat-up tin can he's got sitting there, there might not be much hope to salvage the curb appeal. I do find it hilarious that the developers have just boxed him in completely.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Can you join someone else's teapot on a new account? If I started on Asia, would I be able to see yours?

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Some probably have a secret camera for other reasons.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Ryoshima Coast
Fairfrozen: Selicy's Theme
Rose-Killing Carmilla

some really close matches to pick

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I think I got axe first. It felt like I picked the most natural set of choices.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

NFUN posted...

people unironically voted for transformer robots and soilscraper and simple & clean. there's no universally reviled song

What's wrong with those?

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I was going to say you should do whichever one you'd have the most expertise/commentary on, but then I read the post and realized I overlooked

MegamanX posted...

100 Best Moments from 100 Games [No Order]
Not a traditional top 100, but one going over some spoilery or just wow moments from gaming I've encountered

This is something I've considered doing, except I don't know if I have quite enough breadth of options to pick from. I'd probably forget most of my best moments. Might be interesting to crowdsource, but I'd also be interested in seeing one person's opinion.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

If Guitar Hero peripherals count, than the Xbox 360 Guitar Hero 3 guitar.

If not, I was using some generic Gamestop-brand 360 controller on my computer for a while until I finally replaced it with another generic controller.

It might be worth noting here that I also don't use a mouse; I use a trackball. I've used a Logitech Trackman for over 20 years now. I still remember when mice weren't the default point-and-click for computers and they didn't usually have scroll wheels...which is important, because my trackball doesn't -- there's no reasonable place for one.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Toxtricity posted...

that's a change that i value a lot actually. i always got sad seeing like "3-50" level of extremes in results

They're fun in small doses, but I'm sure the nominator feels like crap when they happen. Unless the nominator agrees and the loser was just hopelessly outmatched, which does happen from time to time.

Basically confirms what I think we've known for a while, though -- there will never be a unanimous match in VGMC. I'm honestly very curious if we could even force such a match just by picking some song off the retired list that's universally loved and a track that's universally reviled.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I would say I have had friends of all races. I would say I barely have any friends right now. (For purposes of this discussion, internet people don't count, because I have no idea what race they are and it has zero bearing on anything unless they're from another country.)

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

ayy, 0/3. Not too upset under the circumstances, but yeesh.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I think I've heard someone suggest a freeze comp, which makes sense, but also might not be practical.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

*laughs in Ganyu*

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Whatever I happen to catch that's on a primary network because I just have a digital antenna.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I was going to mention the totem thing. The original text of Nightmare Amalgam specified all the tribes it belonged to.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Are sceptile and mac that old? *shrug*

HasteDeux posted...

My top five are all literally within 1% of each other! Hahaha.... I have no idea who's gonna be my #1 when all is said and done...

Surprise, it's tennisboy!

edit: actually, you're pretty close to the bane of my existence, so I'd be an odd enough answer for that, too.



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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

1

I really didn't care about the story and lore in this one. It was trying so hard to be 2D Dark Souls or Bloodborne in it's presentation and it misfired on all cylinders.

The game is the single most overrated thing to come out in the last generation of video games. The map is horrid. It is inexcusable that a map system is this bad in 2017 especially for a Metroidvania. After I beat the game I had no desire to pursue the DLCs or have to do anything with future sequels. The boss battles were the only thing that gripped me and I had a pretty good time with. Exploration was a nightmare.

Today, on Hot Takes, where we bring you all the most divergent, minority viewpoints from around the internet...

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I am impressed with today's attempt to squeeze all the titles into the topic line. RainFKAPurp is really funny to me for some reason.

The Rain Formerly Known As Purple
Out of Tartarus
Foregone Destruction

Pretty decent day. (edited for match 3)

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Yay for Angel's Tear~

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Emeraldegg posted...

I had 1 amalgadon already and played another one and it only adapted twice. That's not the interaction I would expect just going off the wording of the text.

So you were expecting it to adapt an infinite number of times, into a 999/999 divine shield, poisonous, taunt? (FYI, even in a circumstance where there would be an infinite loop, game mechanics stop at 30 cycles.)

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

ChainLTTP posted...

SNES version (in the Switch collection), only maybe an hour in. This guy's rant kind of captures a lot of how I'm feeling:

https://www.reddit.com/r/snes/comments/cueb0s/hot_take_secret_of_mana_sucks/

This guy's rant is ridiculous. There are plenty of reasons to dislike Secret of Mana, but he's just making shit up at this point. "Why do I use candy to heal, but then the actual heal is a teardrop??"

I played this game in '93 when it released. It was fantastic then. I'm sure it's far less so now when we come to expect certain things like comparisons of upgrades. The charge meter mechanic is a quixotic quirk that you come to get used to, but never really added much. Would have made more sense if they just didn't let you attack before you could get a full hit, but it's really not that big a deal once you're used to it.

Speaking of used to it, the ring system was very innovative for its time. Is it better than a menu with tabs? On a low resolution CRT television, probably. Yes, again, it takes some adaptation, but it's easy enough to work with.

The biggest problem is the early game pacing, which that guy mentioned, and that claim is legit. Up until the point when you get the first set of magic, the game is incredibly uneven and all but forces you to power-level. This is evident in particular at two points -- the werewolves fight at the entrance to the witch's forest, and the Spikey Tiger battle at the end of it. Spikey Tiger is hands down the single worst point of the game, and is a game design massacre that I could write an entire thesis about. Right after that, you get called to the water palace, where you have to fight some incredibly difficult regular enemies and a boss fight of sorts with a future normal enemy. And then you finally get healing magic. The game becomes so much simpler after that.

The second biggest problem is the amount of effort it takes to level magic, particularly white magic. The sprite's spells you'll tend to use on their own, but the girl's take more casts to go up. Considering the MP pool is rather limited, it promotes sleeping at an inn, spending her MP, and then sleeping again.

The third problem is that magic is completely busted. There's an issue with hit locking in this game, and this is especially evident when it comes to spellcasting, since many spells hold their target in place, knock them back, and leave a long enough window for it to happen. It's possible for you to spam a boss to death, or in some cases, for the boss to spam you.

Oh yeah, and then there's the character AI, which gets stuck at very awkward annoying points in certain dungeons and -- surprise surprise -- tends to be worst in Elinee's castle.

These are all incredibly legitimate problems. If you want to hate on the game for any of those, I won't bat an eye or think for a second to tell you that I think you're wrong. But I disagree with pretty much all the other arguments presented.

MrSmartGuy posted...

I know this is gonna be blasphemy, but I hate hate HATE the music. It's so grating; I'd rather listen to complete silence than this game's soundtrack.

Especially this. Dear god, this. With the exception of the boss battle music, Danger, which can suck my <insert body part here>, this is my favorite soundtrack of all time.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Frostmourne posted...

God i hope you are trolling.

I had to go looking this up. I don't think I've ever seen an iced honey bun.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

HK is a weird one for me to evaluate, because when I found out how much depth there really was to the story, I was mystified and also transfixed...but at the same time, a lot of it is kinda weird. The Pale King's plan to deal with the corruption was to birth a bunch of soulless kids and hope one of them could serve as a vessel to contain it? And oh look, it didn't work. What a surprise.

It's also incredibly easy to miss, as KP pointed out, so you really have to go digging to find it. In that regard, it's very rewarding for the people who uncover it, and very irrelevant to anyone who doesn't. Team Cherry certainly decided rather than presenting the story, to simply suggest at it enough that eventually the fanbase would come together to figure it out. Personally, I think it's obscure enough that it deserved to be docked a bit for that.

Where HK really excels is its ambiance. The game reeks of a vibrant, breathing world. The story serves to further enhance that, but I'm not sure how much of a two-way street it is. That's a funny thing to say, considering the discoveries you make through the world are the inferences you mostly need to draw any conclusions at all about the story, but seeing as it's possible to reach and defeat the final boss without even finding the most important parts of the story -- I thought I had done a pretty solid job of exploring Hallownest and had a lot of trouble finding a way to access one of the three required sub-bosses that forced me to explore even more, and I still never completed several important components of the "full game" until prompted by an online guide -- I understand why someone might not fully embrace this story.

That said, it is rather interesting and unique, and the delivery is one that reinforces the curiosity that should drive the entire game, so I think there's certainly something of value here. Supposing that you find it.

8/10

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

KamikazePotato posted...

I have no idea why Hollow Knight was nominated. The game barely has a story and what's there is like Dark Souls--.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XDiWYFGGqY

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Nefertiti (Ver.MMXI)
linkage-alter
Soaring Through Azure Sadness

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

Where do I find my voting win %? I feel like there's a lot of stuff that I liked in that list of dead songs...

You had a win % of 54%. That's a bit below average since most winning songs have more than 54% of the vote. The highest win rate is 77% (good grief) and the lowest is 45%.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Gotta have a reason to go there.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Well, that was something. I'm impressed PUBG produced a "show" like this, though.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Best of Times
DNF FW15C (ALL PHASE MIX)

might change my mind on the second one

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I don't think I would have bothered replaying the game to get other endings without the route tree. Knowing what options there were to me was pretty significant. Sure, the biggest decisions come at the door selection moments, but those aren't the only times that you have to do something important.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Strife2 posted...

JustMonika/10

....

9

Was going to say 8.5, but yeah, basically this.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Genesis Beyond the Beginning
The Final Showdown...?

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

That poll confused the shit out of me, considering it names songs that I was pretty certain hadn't gone yet.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

I don't buy AAA titles until they've been out long enough to drop in price considerably, but the only one of these I've even been looking into was It Takes Two,

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Having only played it on Steam, I would not want to have to sit through the entire game all over again just to access a different ending...especially if the options I chose weren't what triggered the other ending and I had to loop back repeatedly.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Spurred into Flight, Drenched and Fallen - The Night Rises
S-Rank Battle
Eleganza

could have gone either way in match 1

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

GANON1025 posted...

honest Rush Warrior

*snerk*

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Leonhart4 posted... It has a route tree like the other two games do

And this is bad why?

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.

Was never really interested. The jean skin is interesting because it depicts her differently, and a lot less bundled up. I'm still not interested and certainly not for 20 bucks, but Barbara's is only marginally different.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.