Lurker > Dalthine

_____Cait posted...

Looks more like western-anime, but still looks good.

But im confused about what the game is. It looks like maybe it is a board game, or a roguelike, but it says its an rpg.

never a good thing when they show characters and story over gameplay.

hope its good

From what I saw on the Steam trailer, it was a good bit of gameplay. Never for more than a few seconds at a time, though.

The gist was that the battle system would give you a stock of words, and you'd use those words to make an attack name. So, like, if you pick Strong and Claw, you'd do a power base claw attack. Or you could pick things like Fiery to give it an element, etc. Part of the system of powering up was that you could get new words over time. Interesting concept, but not sure how well it would work in practice, and the non combat based parts in the trailer didn't look impressive.

If it was cheaper, I liked the art style enough I would have given it a shot, but like I said the price tag was too high to jump without seeing unadulterated gameplay.

I think I made a supposedly competitive ready one, but never put it to use. And haven't used one in a main playthrough.

Found the article.

https://www.techspot.com/news/109626-ai-bubble-only-thing-keeping-us-economy-together.html

I saw a chart showing the US economy versus "tech investment". Basically if it wasn't for the absurd amount of money being pumped into AI, we would already be in an official recession.

Now it's just an unofficial one where we're feeling the effects, but the investment sector and economy numbers are floating on the AI bubble.

I thought 16 was a decent game overall but has a lot of glaring flaws that drag it down.

But if you want JRPG this absolutely ain't it. Of the ones you listed as considering, the only one I played was Octopath 2. Solid JRPG gameplay in that and the core character stories are okay, but still suffers from not enough overlap on party member stories. I would also recommend Expedition 33 if you haven't already played it.

Most of that stuff has been covered already so just kind of adding my voice to the clamor.

Two for me. One "big" game that's pretty long and going to last for a while that I try to give the bulk of my attention. And one "small" game (aim for 20 hours or less) that's better done in shorter bursts. Most of the time the small game gets me attention when I need a break or I'm just not in the mood for the other.

I don't mind if it's the kind of game where you have a decent amount of control over the character's personality. At that point I'm determining enough about the character and how they act that giving them a name makes sense.

If it's a character that's mostly on rails and I never get to make a single meaningful dialogue choice? Just gimme a fuckin' default name because the character exists and I have no other input. Why force me to use my imagination here and not let me use it anywhere else?

If the "character" is just a cardboard cutout that exists with minimal interaction, I dunno, I'm more ambivalent there. It's kind of annoying to bother but it's less offensive than if the creator obviously already made their own character but wants you to pick a name.

So, World First stuff for the sorts of races where people care in FFXIV normally take 8-24 hours, depending on difficulty. That's top guilds in the world competing with the best gear, full preparation, and open schedules. A couple have gone faster than that but there's been some controversy around third party tools for that time frame, with some teams basically getting caught cheating.

Your setup where it's a longer run-up to a boss attempt would probably add ~50% to that, but it might be counterbalanced by larger groups scaling down the overall difficulty. (FFXIV raids are 8 person groups.)

A formerly unknown (in the raiding scene) guild getting a 10-12 hour clear time would be impressive enough to take notice, even if the World First was at the 8 or 9 hour mark.

Most of the above also assumes no or minimal prep time involved. Like, the content drop doesn't require them to go get a whole new tier of gear that came with the update before they can even start trying.

Edit: also to correct one of my previous statements:
Most World First Savage clears are within two days, with the bulk of them on the first day.
World first Ultimate clears took from 3 to 11 days.

SydnieStarlight posted...

-The raid calls for three parties of five, and the multi-floor sections separate one party from the other two. I probably should've clarified that from the start!

Baldesion's Arsenal is a good analogue then. Multiple parties, built like a dungeon, forced splits, etc. And it's considered Savage tier difficulty so World First would be something to pursue. It would be hard to gauge time comparison to beat though since it took way more to get in the door than hitting a button.

I think there's some logic to cutting out the "world's first" aspect and just have them wanting to try a raid. But on the other hand, I also want their relative success to lead into the following arc. (Players with good accomplishments in the raid get an exclusive invitation to a major PVP tournament, which is the next part of the story.)

Removing the World First makes it way more feasible a story. That would mean it's not necessarily super hardcore content. Just build in a secondary PVP related requirement or an opt-in button. Not everybody who raids wants to PvP.

Would what I wanna do make more sense if the "informed individual" more overtly guides the group? Like, playing off their insider knowledge as just having crazy good intuition about the mechanics?

That makes it more feasible. A lot of the blind prog issues in high tier content are figuring out how to do a mechanic in the fight. It would probably still take a lot to clear the whole thing in one session though. At the least, larger group content tends to be more lax because of the herding cats aspect of online groups being amplified and devs understand that.

Your thing sounds more like a WoW style raid, so I'm not sure how much I can really help since I'm mainly familiar with FFXIV. But I'll answer where I can.

The tl;dr of what I can say is that a blind group with minimal raid experience will probably take weeks to clear, but it depends on how the devs design it difficulty wise.

In FFXIV, most "raids" are just a series of boss fights. What you're talking about sounds more like a field ops raid. Delubrum Reginae or Baldesion's Arsenal are closer to being one "segment" of your tower. To a lesser extent, Deep Dungeons which are done in chunks of 10 floors at a time, with 100-200 total and a boss every 10th floor.

Content is also broken up on terms of difficulty tiers. There's Normal difficulty, on which it is entirely possible to go in blind and clear all four raid fights in a night. Normal is the anybody can do it tier where once it's established it's pretty rare to see wipes.

Next is Extreme tier. Extreme is typically pulled out for singular boss fights and has more complex and more deadly mechanics. An experienced group can go in blind and probably beat an Extreme fight in one session. An inexperienced blind group is going to have a bad time but could maybe beat it in one session.

Savage is the last common tier and is where things get dicey. Even experienced groups that have won the fight before will see the occasional wipe here. Going in blind is typically a slow learning process for an experienced group and they're lucky to get through one fight in a day's session. World First groups can clear a tier in a day if they get an easy batch, but that's not always the case and 8 hours is often pushing it. A completely inexperienced group going in blind? They'd be lucky to finish a single fight in the first week, much less the entire tier in one night.

There's also Ultimates, but those are prestige fights and are made to be fuck you hard. They're the kind of things it can take months for a group to beat even with knowledge. I don't thinkthat's what you're going for here.

In terms of something that actually deserves a bit of recognition for World First, you're probably looking at Savage tier. Nobody cares who beats a Normal first. The race there is the first to put a guide on youtube.

Also a side though on electronic interface while sleeping, you might want to look into the story of Hypnospace Outlaw.

I saw it pop up on new & trending the other day.

It looked interesting but the price tag is enough that I'd want to see better word of mouth or a streamer earnestly playing it so I can judge how I'd like it.

Looks like all the holiday FF cards got added to Scryfall. They weren't there when I checked yesterday morning.

Honestly pretty disappointed that so many of the new chocobo variants are of cards that already had borderless versions. I think that's true of 7 of the 8 non-commander ones. I also feel like the tracks kind of ruin the art some, but maybe it's not as bad with a physical card. At least some of those new variants may drop the price of valuable cards a bit.

The new land variants seem nice though. Good to see Black Mage Village showing up.

I'll be doing Order of Ecclesia and Monster Hunter Stories mainly. Might finish the former, we'll see how that goes. Will probably also give Clonizer a shot, picked it up on the sale.

pegusus123456 posted...

Gris is the nonsense example word this site's TOS uses to explain its censorship rules.

Oh. Shows how much attention I pay, I guess.

Giacomo_Hawkins posted...

How fortunate for you that uncensored cursing is allowed on this site now.

...Whuh?

I mean it has been for a while of you turn the censor off in settings, but I'm also not sure such word you mean.

If I could be so bold, I might suggest "pretty" over just "cute" as well.

Gris might not be complex or engrossing in terms of gameplay, but it's gorgeous to look at and not difficult for people who don't play many games. Currently $3 on the sale.

And if she gets any enjoyment out of things like jigsaw puzzles, I'd recommend Glass Masquerade 1 or 2. The later entries (there are 4) lost some of the charm for ease of development I think, but the first one will let you know if you're into it. $1.50 right now.

Rhythm games might be worth looking into as well, but I'm probably not much help there. Shouldn't be hard to find one in the cute category. For pretty you could potentially do Sayonara Wild Hearts, but that's a very short game even for its discounted asking price (~$8).

nocturnal_traveler posted...

When I first made this topic, I had World of Warcraft and Pokemon in mind. The former always drove away new players, and the latter is incredibly boring from what I've tried (EV/IV training).

Ehh, pokemon stuff you're getting at there I feel is a different question entirely. Not EV training isn't just "not following the meta", that's just not properly preparing yourself. Rocking up to a WoW dungeon with a weapon 20 levels old is a bad look that actively hurts the team, for example.

Pokemon meta is more about which pokemon to use, team composition, etc.

I'm also a weirdo that just liked training pokemon though. I made a roster of hundreds of 5 IV, EV trained, moveset ready pokemon back in Gen7 just because I was enjoying it.

Surprised no one's called out the first post question.

Most meta players aren't the ones crunching numbers or figuring things out. They just look up what the best thing is based on what pros use or what the current chatter online of the current OP thing is and use that.

The people actually crunching numbers, theorycrafting, or testing the things that become the meta aren't those players. Typically they're the people where that 0.01% advantage matters, the "elite sports" mentioned in a previous post.

And unless you're gonna get good enough you're actually making money off playing? You're not going to see the full gains from bandwagoning onto the meta.

Though there's also nothing wrong or inherently unfun about that either. "The meta" is a shortcut to getting into the game. League has over 100 champs and you don't get a test drive mode (unless that changed). You gonna research every one to find one you maybe like but might be balanced poorly? You gonna go off vibes and spend your currency sight unseen? Grabbing a meta choice to shortcut those kinds of decision processes or risks is perfectly viable. Just don't expect to win only because you picked the meta, that's how you piss yourself off over it.

I'll probably pick up SMT5V with the price it's at.

And I've been interested in Clonizer, think $10 is decent for me to pick it up and see how it hits.

SMT5V dropped under $30, might pick that one up.

Other than that just a weird little indie game I was interested in with enough of a sale to make me jump.

Originally I was going to pass for the missing WotL content, but the balance changes make it a bit more enticing. They made it sound like there wouldn't be many changes.

I'm not in any rush though. I'll probably see where the cards fall the next time I feel like playing through the game.

I don't think a Moogle raising game quite fits, but a Moogle management game seems like it would. A sort of guiding hand helping them to build up a Moogle village, coaching them on foraging for kupo nuts, building equipment to outfit with for hunting or monster defense, choosing areas to clear land for more houses, etc. Alternatively, managing a Moogle postal service, since that exists in at least 2 games now.

I guess the question then becomes how you give it some of its own longevity, if it's not just a minigame in something else bigger. You could potentially do it Animal Crossing style, I suppose.

ellis123 posted...

No, you get two of them. The "one of" are the Scene Box cards.

Though yeah, they're going to be expensive. The Traveling Chocobo is going to easily be the cost of the box.

Oh, yeah I misunderstood the "promo card" as those alternate art ones. I guess that's the chocobo that was in another post. So one "chocobo booster" with two of the alt art cards.

Oof, and 10 play boosters in there means that the set is going to be pricy even at MSRP (can't see MSRP right now because out of stock).

ellis123 posted...

Those are from the Chocobo Bundle. They are the Track Foil cards (you can tell because of the chocobo tracks on them).

I see. And at only one of them per Chocobo Bundle, they're probably gonna wind up pretty pricy unless they print lots of those. Unfortunate.

Anybody know how you're supposed to get the new borderless versions of the cards that are being released? Like, these ones?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/caca68cb.jpg

Are they going to do a new run of boosters that can have these or something?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/94f62057.jpg

ZevLoveDOOM posted...

game has been out for a while. or has it passed the early access phase?

1.0 releases today, which is the official out of early access side of things.

It still says Early Access on Steam though (or did like an hour ago) so I don't know that it's been pushed there yet.

Zikten posted...

Isnt windows 10 being shut down?

It's being "shut down" in the way 7 was. They don't brick a computer that uses it, they just stop providing (free) security updates.

Steam is about 1,500.
Physical is probably about 200.
Other digital marketplaces about 100.

Foppe posted...

I don't even know what Skibidi is.

Pretty much this.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/70cb67bc.jpg

I wish I was joking.

More full explanation: some dude started making "Skibidi Toilet" videos through GMod as YouTube poop. Then they got massively popular and it started to branch out into a longer thing with factions and plot lines. Now it's an enormous thing.

Oh yeah. Work was so rough this week I forgot about this game coming out.

I've been waiting on 1.0 to pick it up. I don't think I'll play right away (maybe I will, I've got an open spot) but I go ahead and give them some money.

Murphiroth posted...

The Gestral Beaches weren't bad at all and also are totally optional.

Needing to compete all the beaches is the main thing that makes me shirk getting all achievements for the game.

I picked it up once I found out some info about it. Some of the streamers I watched played it so I got a nice sample.

It's excellent, and an amazing value for what you're paying. I've only played a few of the games on it though. Need to revisit it at some point but there's just too many games (as in, outside of UFO 50).

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Orange juice

Pikachuchupika posted...

I see most of its dlc is regularly on sale.

The way I hear people talk about it, most of the older content isn't even accessible. Which leads me to a follow up question: can you even get the content you'd be paying for with dlc packs?

pinky0926 posted...

Ah ok. The dialogue and journal entries were making it feel like I have a good reason to save him in particular. I'm glad.

It's been a while but I seem to recall that he was supposed to have or have the authority to give you an item that helps you get through the Act 2 area.

Then if you're pretending to be aligned with the Absolute, he's an ally. If you're a goodie then the gnomes are in there too. Myconids want his head so you have to get him out to collect it. And I think there was mention of some treasure or something back there you might want. Lots of reasons to clear the cave in overall, not necessarily because you want to help Nere.

I think the discussion around E33 extends beyond turn based, even though people like to point towards Final Fantasy as the point to say they want it.

Expedition 33 did it earlier this year, and now Silksong has done it too, where these are games that are visually stunning, have incredible music, tell an interesting story, have relatively few technical issues, and are fun to play. And then they blow a lot of AAA games out of the water by doing all that and releasing at a lower price point. The takeaway I get from these is not that they're doing it to challenge or laugh at the industry, or because of lack of confidence in their product. They price their games "low" because their first and foremost goal was to make a video game as art and they wanted as many people as possible to see it.

Obviously they can't price it too low--a person has to eat and make rent, after all--but they would have gotten tons of praise even releasing at a much higher price. There's arguments to be made from a business perspective of course, like Sandfall setting a low price point to prove themselves and hook people, but I think that was secondary. The themes of art are written all over E33 after all, and it makes sense that someone proud of their art would want people to see it.

And that's where I think that most major publishers are falling short these days. Money is the main driving factor. The art is stripped away as the things they make get turned into a product. It has to get massaged by focus groups into a mass appeal mold and have tons of money pumped into graphics so they can have a big flashy scene for marketing trailers. Even if the people lower down still have passion to put in development, it gets filed away for the sake of profit.

And unfortunately, if bigger devs, Square Enix included, do learn any lessons from this, I don't think that'll be the one they take away.

Tl;dr: E33 was successful and beloved for being art with passion while major releases like Final Fantasy have been reduced to products.

Is that where Poo Poo Point is?

Iirc, the main character has amnesia going into 3 and has forgotten the events of 1 and 2 so it's almost more true to form to start blind with 3.

Someone else should confirm that though.

Gundam Wing was amazing as a kid but I'd agree with the sentiment that it doesn't feel like it lives up to the nostalgia watching as an adult. I went through it a couple years back. Lots of stupid teenager decisions, lots of stuff that just doesn't make sense, Rowling-worthy naming conventions (Heero and Peacecraft, really?), and so much blatantly recycled fight animation. Like the Gundam series frequently reuses that kind of animation, but they at least try to mask it in the other series.

That said, I haven't tried that with Outlaw Star to see how it holds up. I should give that a shot sometime.

Played Bravely Default and Bravely Second.

Bravely Default 2 is on the backlog.

I think the last one I did it on was Celeste, but that depends on how you define it. I got to the wall in Space that said I'd need to go do all the B/C sides to continue and noped out. That's technically past the original end of the game, though.

Anyone who's been playing since the old days knows that feeling though. If you stuck out Battletoads the original NES game until you beat it, you are incredibly stubborn and/or determined.

Not sure, I use alt+enter for line breaks though. Maybe see if that works as intended?

Damn, was gonna congratulate you on the Psycho Wand but then you went and god a Red Ring too. Grats, that's a crazy haul for a couple days.

It's also crazy to have gotten to 185 in the course of a few weeks. You really put in the work, especially if the bulk of that's just with Caves runs.

I'd probably go with Tinkaton as my favorite.

Runners-up would be Clodsire and Maushold.

As I understand, FF6 was originally planned to end with the WoB scenario (facing Kefka on the Floating Continent), but they had a lot more time and budget in development so they said, "Fuck it, let's put more game in our game." So we got the WoR.

Personally I love WoR because I love exploring in RPGs. It felt like there was always more stuff to find as a kid. It was great.

Having said that, the definition of what TC is looking for gets way more muddy if you take the argument of "main character" vs "protagonist". Like, Vaan is the protagonist of FFXII because he's who you're playing as from the start and the person who acts as the player's lens, but Ashe feels way more like the main character since the story revolves almost entirely around her and her decision.

Valkyrie Profile original/Lenneth, though it gets slightly shaky if you commit to the way they do combat being turn-based. Feels like it to me since you get an attack turn, then the enemies get an attack turn.

Indivisible in the same vein as above. Complex battle systems but overall turns.

Child of Light.

If SRPGs count, La Pucelle Tactics (and the Ragnarok remaster).

CrisTales I think, but I don't know much about it (think I got it in a bundle at some point).

Most of the Hyperdimension Neptunia games are turn-based, aren't they?

I've been looking into the card albums.

First looked at the one that I originally got and the motivations behind the recommendations. It's a top loader but it's also got a zipper and I store it flat instead of upright, so the dust concerns don't really matter. But I can tell looking at it that the 3-ring portion is slightly altering the way they sit when it's open, but laying flat and closed it seems to be fine. More importantly though, the sleeves are PVC, which is what absolutely ruins cards stored in it long-term.

So no matter what, I have to replace it.

Looking at the bound pages instead of the 3-ring though, it seems like they're all an opaque back. Are there any that are clear through to the other side of the page so that you can see the reverse side of cards with flips? Otherwise I might be stuck with 3 ring regardless and just have to be careful about how I store it.

Well that conversation is a frustrating capstone to a difficult week. I'd never have thought the binders could fuck up the cards. I'll have to get a new one but I'll have to get a bigger one. I'd also still want a 3x3 so I don't have to redo my organization.

Ugh. Maybe transferring the cards over to the new binder will be a bit of catharsis.