Board 8 > Jeff Zero & Leonhart in Different Houses: Life Will Change Edition [JZLF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

I remember it was always a struggle just to get past Chemical Plant Zone as a little kid because of that part! It's actually possible to get through that entire act in Sonic Mania without having to even mess with that if you're careful and stay on the higher routes.

There are times I feel like I was better at video games as a kid than I am now until I remember how bad I was at Sonic games. Always had to use cheat codes to beat them.
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I never really got the hang of 2D Sonic. I always feel like I'm playing them incorrectly.

Something about rushing through levels with multiple paths instead of exploring everything like I usually do maybe. Losing all of my coins from any hit also always felt like a weird mechanic to me and I'm not sure if I should be attacking enemies or avoiding them (and whether to bother going out of my way to collect coins).

Omg is this a bean machine boss???
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Well, the temptation with Sonic is to always go as fast as possible, but that sometimes results in you missing cool bonuses and optimal paths through the level. It's worth the extra effort to slow down and take in your surroundings, looking for alternate paths other than the one straight ahead of you. If you're playing with Tails as your sidekick instead of just Sonic alone, you can hold up and hit jump twice to make him fly, and you can grab him and have him lift you up to higher areas, although the hit box and Tails's AI can be kinda finicky.

Taking the time to collect rings is always a good idea, too, because that's the easiest way to gain extra lives. There's nothing wrong with avoiding enemies altogether if you don't want to risk losing rings. You don't really have to engage most enemies.

Also, playing as Knuckles is kind of "easy mode" for Sonic games because he's a little slower, but he can glide, climb, and knock out certain walls that Sonic can't, which makes exploration easier. He absolutely breaks Sonic 2 wide open because the game wasn't designed to handle his unique abilities...but the game pays you back and then some with how much harder the final boss is for him, so it balances out! Most levels in S3&K gave Knuckles a harder boss than Sonic to compensate for his other benefits though. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is if the game is hard for you as Sonic, give Knuckles a try!

And yes, that boss is great.
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Well, the lack of restarting totally from game overs definitely makes dying a lot more bearable than in the originals. I don't anticipate becoming too frustrated to beat it with Sonic, but if I do I'll keep that in mind!
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I still need to do a Knuckles playthrough of my own once I get those DARN sixth and seventh Chaos Emeralds.

I really wish Pokecapn would do a Sonic Mania LP, but I guess those days are behind him now. I'm not a big LP guy, but his Sonic LPs were always worth watching, and not just the classic Sonic 2006 one. His Mario Party ones are excellent, too!
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Whew, got all the Silver Medals from the Blue Sphere special stages!

and I apparently broke the music by getting to 20 lives because the game played the "act cleared" music instead and then I had to play the rest of the act without music
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Oh right, I managed to get the camera put together and got the hamster maxed out in Diabolical Box. I'm still missing like half of the tea ingredients, so I can't really do anything for these people who are asking for blends that I can't make, or blends I think I have that turn out to be wrong because I don't know what else there is.

Oh well.
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Phew, The Descent DLC done for the first time on Dragon Age: Inquisition. If this is the one everybody says to skip if you're only grabbing two of the three -- the ME3 Omega, if you will -- then wow, color me impressed. I wouldn't say it was great, but it was pretty good, and at no point did Aria T'Loak or any other BioWare character move backwards at vampiric speeds during a speech cutscene.

The battles got pretty tough. I had to stay savvy, laying down traps every two seconds and even spamming them for launch damage when I could. There's this part midway through the mission with more Darkspawn than I've seen on the screen at once since Dragon Age: Origins' Battle for Denerim. It got ridiculous. Dorian fell unconscious like 20 times. It was sort of a "concentrated horde mode" encounter, but you had to wipe out specific enemies, and getting past the masses wasn't easy.

The lore got taken in an interesting direction. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this revelation, but it's one of those where I'm pretty sure it'll get further development in the next game. It's not like Trespasser, where it's like a straight-up segue into some of the next game's biggest stuff, but still. It's happening.

David Hayter pretty much played Solid Snake here. Lieutenant Renn, of the Legion of the Dead, is Old Snake through and through. Obviously, Renn is substantially less developed, but it was still pretty great.

Ali Hillis was Valta, which triggered a brief scene in the beginning where Harding and Valta had a couple of lines together and Ali Hillis was speaking to Ali Hillis. Kind of funny.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Oh right, I managed to get the camera put together and got the hamster maxed out in Diabolical Box. I'm still missing like half of the tea ingredients, so I can't really do anything for these people who are asking for blends that I can't make, or blends I think I have that turn out to be wrong because I don't know what else there is.

Oh well.

wait what
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it's a visual novel thing man

you wouldn't understand
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I haven't cleared Blue Sphere even once.
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Blue Sphere definitely takes some getting used to before you can start clearing stages regularly.
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Blue Sphere

good game
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Argh so close to getting that DARN sixth Chaos Emerald

the frustration is real
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Aw yeah all Chaos Emeralds get

Time to beat this game for real as Sonic/Tails and move on to Knuckles!
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Sonic Mania get.

Time to remind myself how badly I suck at non-RPGs that aren't Metal Gear Solid.
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it's a great feeling

Although I got the game pretty much down pat after one playthrough. I died a lot that first time through though!
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LeonhartFour posted...

Blue Sphere definitely takes some getting used to before you can start clearing stages regularly.

Won't get bored of trying with that music though
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by the way your reward for clearing all the Blue Sphere levels

is being able to just play Blue Sphere from the Extras menu
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Just a few things on the "What I'm watching" front:

Since I've been in a Sonic mood this week, I decided to start watching the second season of the Sonic Boom cartoon. The games were a disaster, but this show is really good. It's like a slice of life show starring Sonic the Hedgehog. It's very self-aware and never takes itself seriously.

I watched a couple of episodes of Sweetness & Lightning, too. This was recommended to me because of how much I enjoyed Usagi Drop, and it's definitely in that same vein. Very cute and heartwarming.

And the first video of the DGS2 LP is completely subbed, so I'm going to start working my way through that little by little since I know this is a long process. The first little bit of DGS2-1 is pretty great though. Not really going to delve into specifics since I'm pretty sure dowolf is the only other guy in here besides me who's familiar with the first game.
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After I said that I cleared 4 Blue Spheres in a row. Any difference getting gold or silver medal? Unlocked a Sonic CD thing. Peel out or something. No idea what that is.

Also fuck yes. Got through Hydrocity without a game over. That would have been a nightmare. I barely beat Eggman there on my last life with no rings.
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Nah, it doesn't matter whether you get a gold medal or a silver medal. It's just the total amount of medals you get that unlocks stuff. You get a gold medal if you manage to collect all the coins in addition to all the spheres, which is kinda insane. I got like one gold medal out of all those stages.

The Peel Out is like a charged up spin dash without the spinning and it goes even faster than the spin dash. They introduced it in Sonic CD, but it's showed up in a few other games, too. Unfortunately, you can only use it on a No Save file, for some reason.
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Oh man just watched an episode of Sonic Boom where they make fun of how terrible the Sonic fanfic community is

this show is great
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There's a Sonic fanfic community?
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if you're not familiar with it I wouldn't recommend doing any research
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Oh sweet, Knux's version of Mirage Saloon is totally different from Sonic's. I loved when they did this in S3&K and gave them completely different versions of the same zone.
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Finished all zones as Sonic and Tails with 4 Emeralds. Wait, I don't have to start over to get them all? I can revisit zones and just go to the stages I've already found?
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Yep, once you clear all the stages, you can just select whatever zone you want on that file. Worked that way with S3&K, too. Definitely makes it easier to get all the Emeralds! There are a couple of zones with giant rings near the start of Act 1, so I just camped out there and replayed those levels until I got them all.

I've actually gotten four Emeralds on this Knux run and haven't messed up a special stage yet! I guess I've gotten the hang of it. I learned the trick is to jump into turns once you hit Mach 2, because it prevents you from veering off the course.
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https://www.masseffect.com/news/mass-effect-andromeda-update-from-the-studio

No single-player DLC for Mass Effect Andromeda confirmed. Totally expected but still a bummer. It's kinda crazy the negative publicity this series has garnered with the last two entries.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Some of them post in this very topic!

I'd be up for allowing some public shaming for their bad opinions...!

sup

Elizabeth is totally overrated. (Also not sure I get that she's underappreciated, on Board 8 at least. I see a lot of love for her here.) Better than Margaret though. Velvet Twins beat her though. Theodore might too, dunno. If Marie counts, she definitely does.

~~~

btw critical sonic mania question

are there classix knux vocal songs? better yet is there pumpkin hill somehow
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this is a 2-D Sonic game man

you're looking in the wrong genre

play Sonic Generations if you want access to cheesy vocal songs
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Yeah I feel like most people here other than me and evidently xp love Elizabeth.

(Not that I dislike her, but there's plenty of better characters)
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two people not appreciating Elizabeth is two too many

criminally underappreciated
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LeonhartFour posted...

this is a 2-D Sonic game man

you're looking in the wrong genre

play Sonic Generations if you want access to cheesy vocal songs

i had to dream

Still, glad to hear you (and apparently everyone) are enjoying it. Whenever I get a Switch (darn you xenoblade 2) I'll almost definitely pick it up.
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I had to get a refund from Amazon for the Switch I supposedly bought because the dude turned out to be a scammer.

Oh well.
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Ouch. That sucks.
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Yeah, he said he shipped it but gave a fake tracking number. I tried using it to see where the package was since it was way later than it was supposed to be, and then I realized something was up. Thankfully, Amazon's returns and refunds policy is very generous.
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Oh, you didn't buy it from Amazon itself?
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Nah, I bought it from a third-party vendor, but I've never had any issues with them before this.
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I think I've just come to accept that in Zestiria, if I'm playing on Chaos, I'm just screwed if I run into an encounter filled with casters. >_>

There's basically only two scenarios in which I die now: Boss-level encounters (sometimes), and Casters. I can handle just about everything else, but Chaos double enemy levels and Magic Defense clearly can't keep up at all. And the battle mechanics and AI mean bad things will happen. I can generally tie one up, maybe even two. But go much higher than that and it'll go downhill very fast. When it's 5 or 6 it's just unfair. Hell, I can be having a routine fight and a single caster comes in unnoticed as a reinforcement and the way I find out is 2-3 party members, possibly me included, just drop dead out of nowhere.

I'd consider lowering the difficulty (I can stomp them on Hard, and out of frustration in the newest area there's one enemy type I will lower it to Hard for because depending on the composition of the fight I can either win or die in 10 seconds) but again, there are otherwise unobtainable benefits from playing on higher difficulties and also it's just this one edge case argh. Otherwise, things are fine and it can be pretty fulfilling to dominate despite the difficulty.

The story is getting better too, although the Tales style presentation absolutely kills some scenes and deprive them of any impact they're meant to have. Abyss had a scene or two like that as do most Tales games I've played, but I feel like usually Tales was a bit better at this? There's been a few scenes where I almost wanted to laugh at the presentation when it's supposed to be a serious or emotional moment and that's not good!

~~~

In non-Zestiria news, man I need Namco to give some .hack//G.U. Last Recode localization info. They said Fall 2017 back when it was announced at E3 and as much as I want to believe I need to knooooow. I'd settle for a "Yeah, Fall 2017 still good." Haven't felt like this about a game release news cycle since Trails SC.

the not knowing is the worst
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That sucks. Switches are becoming a bit more readily available than they used to be at least.

Also the Zestiria anime has very nice presentation! One of the prettiest anime.
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Yeah, I assume I'll be able to get one before Mario Odyssey comes out, at least, which is really all I care about. Not a huge Zelda guy, so Breath of the Wild doesn't appeal to me all that much, although I'm sure I'll play it.
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Oh man, Knuckles has a unique boss in Lava Reef Zone, and it's an excellent callback to one of my favorite moments in S3&K. So good.

Also, I've gotten six Emeralds as Knuckles so far. I don't know that I've ever actually gotten all the Emeralds on a single playthrough of any 2-D Sonic game before! Could be a history-making achievement!
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!!!

They updated ninjhax for the old3ds! And it works!

*dives into DGS*
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dowolf posted...

!!!

They updated ninjhax for the old3ds! And it works!

*dives into DGS*

awwww yeah

good for you man
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Welp

I was not aware that you automatically died if you go over 10 minutes on a stage
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Oh god Hydrocity
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Welp

I was not aware that you automatically died if you go over 10 minutes on a stage

haha yes this is not a thing that happens often but if you're trying to explore and be thorough it does occasionally happen

It happened to me yesterday as Knuckles because I spent too much time fooling around in Flying Battery. At least the timer resets all the way back to zero when you time out.

also if you go left at the very beginning of Act 1 there's a water shield in that zone so that helps a ton
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Oh right, forgot to mention that I watched a couple more episodes of Sweetness & Lightning last night. Show is totally adorable or "totes adorbs" as the kids today say
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When I played Castlevania recently I died once due to the timer.

I completely forgot those existed except in mario games.
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