Poll of the Day > Anime, Manga, VN, JRPG, Related Things Discussion Topic XCIII yay

(+) Yeah! (+)

Had to spend $10 extra to get everything I wanted this time. Got The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter for the most expensive one. I can get the third game some other time. I'll probably play the first game when I'm done with Ni No Kuni.
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agesboy posted...

that's essentially what my original strategy was, but i'm unable to do that great with it as it did at first. i think i just got super lucky with saffron in the first few runs

been trying it with violette and i'm just not used to the muscle memory of her E yet

For Reva, I switched to a Miseri focus pretty much right away and just took any decent Phalanx cards as they showed up. I managed to get a couple of good poison artifacts (poison ticks faster, everyone starts with some), plus Anubis and doublecast Pandemic (adds an extra 60 poison per cast to already-poisoned targets and everyone adjacent to them, which is insane for larger groups). I don't think I had Detox on the run where I beat the Gate, but that would have made things even better (Anubis-->Doublecast Pandemic-->Detox is a minimum of 320 damage to everything, more if enemies are clumped together for more Pandemic fun), though where I could just facetank everything with my shield, waiting for poison to tick the old-fashioned way wasn't a problem.

I really need to stop relying on that facetanking and learn to dodge, though. I've very much been slacking on the "git gud" part of the game.

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Convergence/Trinity deck Saffron is really good

Also Hearth/Flow deck for Terra

Then Frost deck for Seliacy, maybe flame/frost if you get good artifacts.
Cold pressed juice with Frost deck is so OP.


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still need to try kunai and jam builds, they look neat

flow terra is the build i'm most comfy with

summon spam requires too much brain for me

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One Step from Eden?
Great game.

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agesboy posted...

trails games (if you've never tried any of them, cold steel is an easy entry point. sky kind of drags until the end of the first game plotwise but both series are amazing), tales games (imo vesperia > symphonia > berseria > zestiria), .hack//GU if you've never played it before

Note to self: Pick up Trails in the Sky Third Chapter, now that I can run it on a non-potato.

the SAO games are entertaining enough if you don't hate SAO, though i've never finished any of the ones I've tried (hollow realization and hollow fragment). they were still worth the on-sale price for initial novelty though

By coincidence, have been picking up the SAO games on PS4. Got Re: Hollow Fragment to replace the Vita version of Hollow Fragment that I lost when my memory card tanked.

evenicle is an eroge with heavy turn based jrpg elements made by the rance people (and drawn by the senran kagura guy), and it's super entertaining

You have recommended Evenicle to me before, and I still need to look into it.

agarest games are..... very long games and not for everyone but hey they're on super huge sales now ($12 for all of em, or $3 for the first game)

Hard to believe I got the first one of those for my 360 all the way back in '08. Has it been that long?

Now, I do have Wagamama High Spec, and that might be the next thing I install, since I have had it for a while.

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Some more scanlated chapters of Jinmen are up... and I got sad =(

Hanayo is dead (or seems to be, anyway)

The only kinda plus is that the chapters went up at once.

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I_Abibde posted...

Hard to believe I got the first one of those for my 360 all the way back in '08. Has it been that long?

got mine on ps3 in like 2012 and they were really old news at that point to where i could snag a collector's edition thing of 2 for like $20

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I've always been intrigued by the Agarest franchise, but still haven't got around to playing any. I can't remember if I finally picked up one of the games or not.

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They're rather intimidating if you're a completionist, and even just finishing a basic playthrough will take a very long time, but they're still pretty fun overall. You can play any of them but release order is probably best (Zero is a prequel and there's a few shared characters.... 2 is so far in the future I don't think anyone really returns). I think people generally like the first game the most anyways.

Just whatever you do, do not play Agarest: Mariage. The only good thing about it is that they got a really renowned doujin artist (hell yeah blade) to do the art for it. Literally noone likes it.

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deoxxys posted...

Convergence/Trinity deck Saffron is really good

Also Hearth/Flow deck for Terra

I really need to commit to a proper Flow deck some time. I've half-tried it on a few occasions, but I always get distracted by other stuff that just makes it not work (not helped by the fact that I only recently realized that flow stacks deplete on every cast, which explains why I never seemed to be able to Flow Cast the important spells after wading through the rest of my deck >.>).

deoxxys posted...

Then Frost deck for Seliacy, maybe flame/frost if you get good artifacts.
Cold pressed juice with Frost deck is so OP.

I really like Selicy, but I always struggle with transitioning from using her starting loadout (which is a ton of fun) to a more late-game suitable frost build (since the 160 damage from using her weapon with two Frost stacks isn't enough DPS to handle later content efficiently, even if I try scaling it with Fragile). In the early game, it's so much more efficient to keep a small deck with only the two 2-stack frost spells than to load up on other Frost-inflicting cards and artifacts that rely on dealing Frost damage, and I haven't quite gotten the hang of moving away from that.

agesboy posted...

still need to try kunai and jam builds, they look neat

I want to try Kunai, but I realize I have no idea what artifacts and spells I need for one to come together. I should really look that up for some guidance.

agesboy posted...

summon spam requires too much brain for me

I actually did pretty well with Hazel, after a couple dismal failures of runs where I took doublecast on Gun Turret when I only had 3-4 mana (and its mana cost is 5 once upgraded like that). I may or may not have made that same mistake twice in a row >.>. Once I had the mana for it, though, it worked quite well. I think I may have gotten her to the Wall as well, though I didn't win.

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A quick side note, since I just found out about it:

There is a (free-with-ads, premium available at $4.99 U.S. / month) streaming service called RetroCrush that shows nothing but old school anime ('80s and '90s, but also as far back as the '70s). I put the app on my Roku. Recommend having a look if your tastes are like mine.

agesboy posted...

Just whatever you do, do not play Agarest: Mariage. The only good thing about it is that they got a really renowned doujin artist (hell yeah blade) to do the art for it. Literally noone likes it.

....

*adds to Steam wishlist*

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agesboy posted...

They're rather intimidating if you're a completionist, and even just finishing a basic playthrough will take a very long time, but they're still pretty fun overall. You can play any of them but release order is probably best (Zero is a prequel and there's a few shared characters.... 2 is so far in the future I don't think anyone really returns). I think people generally like the first game the most anyways.

Just whatever you do, do not play Agarest: Mariage. The only good thing about it is that they got a really renowned doujin artist (hell yeah blade) to do the art for it. Literally noone likes it.

That's the only one I own since it was in a bundle awhile ago.
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Okay so my game purchases/backlog until Monster Hunter Rise comes out are lined up.

Just bought Mary Skelter 2 on the Switch, which also comes with the first game as a bonus so that's sweet.

Bought Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk a while back as well, so my dungeon crawling jrpg craving will be met for quite a while.

The next games aren't really jrpgs but hey, might as well list them out.

For when I wanna play something more actiony I just bought Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

And my brother got a free Xbox from his friend along with a couple of games, mostly multiplayer stuff like Destiny, and Rainbow Six Siege. But he also got Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey, and Red Dead Redemption 2 as well.

Depending on how fast I complete these games, (and alongside MH Rise) these might well last me until the end of the year.

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Revelation34 posted...

Had to spend $10 extra to get everything I wanted this time. Got The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter for the most expensive one. I can get the third game some other time. I'll probably play the first game when I'm done with Ni No Kuni.

Oh I did not see this. Congrats on buying one of the greatest games of all time. Hopefully you enjoy Trails in the Sky. You will know you like it within the first couple hours of playing. If you don't like it, don't kill yourself over it. Lots of people don't.

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Judgmenl posted...

Oh I did not see this. Congrats on buying one of the greatest games of all time. Hopefully you enjoy Trails in the Sky. You will know you like it within the first couple hours of playing. If you don't like it, don't kill yourself over it. Lots of people don't.

I already had the first game but was waiting to get the rest before playing. I figured I can just get the third one later since it will take me awhile anyway.
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Third one is more of a gaiden game that provides a lot of foreshadowing of the games to come in the series while fleshing out a lot of character backstory.

I would not buy more entries until you see if you like the direction the series is going in with the first two. They are very much related (originally designed as one game) and a good gauge of if you will like the series. But like I said, if you cannot get into the first title, don't stress it. I know many people who couldn't get into how the series handles its pacing (and all of the games in the series have similar pacing).

Or you can completely spoil some stuff from the Cold Steel games and listen to the reandown (seriously don't do this) if you want a laugh.

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Stumbled across another discovery: I did not realize that Nozomi Entertainment (i.e. Right Stuf) had a You Tube channel featuring several complete series, including stuff like the Dirty Pair OAVs and at least one El Hazard.

Good day for finding stuff, I must say.

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Judgmenl posted...

Oh I did not see this. Congrats on buying one of the greatest games of all time. Hopefully you enjoy Trails in the Sky. You will know you like it within the first couple hours of playing. If you don't like it, don't kill yourself over it. Lots of people don't.

I have restarted SC twice and Cold Steel 2 three times, I just can't get myself to finish them despite really liking them. They're just so HUGE.

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As much as I shill trails, I have no motivation top play the Crossbell games (I should have played them before Cold Steel), and never finished Cold Steel 2 (Too lazy to dig out my PS3). Oh I don't have Cold Steel 4 either because it's never coming out to PC (really it's just taking an eternity).

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc6tBwIJEi8

Nothing to say. Just enjoying the wholesome comfiness.

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Holy shit, Strangers from Hell has a tv show. I hated what I read of the webtoon/manhwa, but maybe it'll be more palatable as a show.

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Judgmenl posted...

Third one is more of a gaiden game that provides a lot of foreshadowing of the games to come in the series while fleshing out a lot of character backstory.

I would not buy more entries until you see if you like the direction the series is going in with the first two. They are very much related (originally designed as one game) and a good gauge of if you will like the series. But like I said, if you cannot get into the first title, don't stress it. I know many people who couldn't get into how the series handles its pacing (and all of the games in the series have similar pacing).

Or you can completely spoil some stuff from the Cold Steel games and listen to the reandown (seriously don't do this) if you want a laugh.

I'll probably like them since I like JRPGs. It will just take me forever to actually get around to playing them though.
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adjl posted...

I really like Selicy, but I always struggle with transitioning from using her starting loadout (which is a ton of fun) to a more late-game suitable frost build (since the 160 damage from using her weapon with two Frost stacks isn't enough DPS to handle later content efficiently, even if I try scaling it with Fragile). In the early game, it's so much more efficient to keep a small deck with only the two 2-stack frost spells than to load up on other Frost-inflicting cards and artifacts that rely on dealing Frost damage, and I haven't quite gotten the hang of moving away from that.

All of her starting spells are great to keep except the explosion one

I just finishing doing a loop for the first time and I did both a pacifist run and a genocide run, felt GREAATTT

To be honest I hardly ever use her weapon except for the occasional finisher.

Mostly ran Pure Frost Anima, with some Phalanx spells for some good barriers and anything else that wasnt that was legendary spells.

Best cards:
-https://onestepfromeden.gamepedia.com/Fimbulveter (x2)
-https://onestepfromeden.gamepedia.com/Blizzard
-https://onestepfromeden.gamepedia.com/Sunder
-https://onestepfromeden.gamepedia.com/Ragnarok (double damage and consume)

And of course three amazing frost artifacts including the one that heals, the one that roots and the one that starts all enemies with frost.

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adjl posted...

For Reva, I switched to a Miseri focus pretty much right away and just took any decent Phalanx cards as they showed up

I just tried this tonight, this may be my favorite character to run Miseri on now (for pure poison build)

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deoxxys posted...

Best cards:

wew you must have had a shitload of luck

i've been not killing bunnies but i probably should


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deoxxys posted...

To be honest I hardly ever use her weapon except for the occasional finisher.

It's better damage than actually triggering Frost if you have two stacks (which, conveniently, both of her starting frost spells can apply), plus it's got built-in piercing to take advantage of Ice Needle's piercing or any other multi-hit frost option. The downside, of course, is that it doesn't take advantage of Frost artifacts and only hits one line at a time, which gives it less ability to scale into the later game. I should really just stop clinging to it, especially where the early game doesn't warrant such min-maxing as building a deck around dealing 10 more damage, but it's so tempting to keep focusing on her weapon (especially where zipping around like that is so fun).

That said, I did just have my mind slightly blown when I was poking around on the wiki to find the name for Ice Needle and I saw the suggestion of firing off Fate Shield after using her weapon to move behind the enemies to guarantee the shield doesn't disappear. It was already a fantastic spell even with its limitations, but now I'm going to make even better use of it.

deoxxys posted...

I just tried this tonight, this may be my favorite character to run Miseri on now (for pure poison build)

It just works. So much of a pure poison build relies on waiting for poison to tick and/or stacking it high enough for Detox to do its job, and Reva's incredibly good at tanking incoming damage (whether facetanking it with shields or reflecting it with skill) while waiting for that. Some people will swear by hiding behind Hazel-buffed shield generators to accomplish that, but that really limits you to Anubis spam (and a few other spells that don't have to pass through your structures) and isn't nearly as engaging.

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I definitely want to try Eden, but right now I'm still playing Slay the Spire pretty heavy.

Meanwhile I noticed I also have a new favorite mangaka. I was reading Virgin's Empire (a pretty shameless yuri ecchi/slice of life), and the art seemed familiar. Turned out it was the same artist as a manga I read a long time ago called Maka-Maka, which at first glance is just yuri smut, but on closer inspection is still smut, but with a little bit more.

And it's also the same artist from Colorful (TV show, not movie). I haven't seen the manga, but the anime is an absolutely hilarious over-the-top parody of guys making fools of themselves trying to get a glimpse of women's underwear. The English dub in particular is great and frequently lampshades just how dumb the whole thing is.

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agesboy posted...

wew you must have had a shitload of luck

i've been not killing bunnies but i probably should

Oh yeah been killing all of the bunnies, but I was pretty lucky

I think I set my focuses to anima/anima, mid game: anima/? (for more luck) and I may have eventually dropped both for max luck: ?/?


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adjl posted...

It's better damage than actually triggering Frost if you have two stacks (which, conveniently, both of her starting frost spells can apply), plus it's got built-in piercing to take advantage of Ice Needle's piercing or any other multi-hit frost option.

That said, I did just have my mind slightly blown when I was poking around on the wiki to find the name for Ice Needle and I saw the suggestion of firing off Fate Shield after using her weapon to move behind the enemies to guarantee the shield doesn't disappear. It was already a fantastic spell even with its limitations, but now I'm going to make even better use of it.

I know but its a lot of micromanaging, especially in late game when a lot of my processing power goes into dodging.

Thats really cool I didnt think of using Fate Shield like that, I usually have just been using it from the back square on the half that doesnt have the enemies.

Funny enough I should have thought of this considering I have been using her dash to reposition Zenith.

keyblader1985 posted...

I definitely want to try Eden, but right now I'm still playing Slay the Spire pretty heavy.

Thats one of my favorite games of all time
<3<3<3

While we are talking about deckbuilding Rougelikes, I still want to try these:
-Monster Train
-Ring of Pain
-Griftlands (still in early access)

Some of these are still getting updates so I'll be good not playing them for a while.

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Maybe I'll try that out one day. I'm not really into card games though.
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i want more of the manga i read to come out faster


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Watching through tonikawa and it's pretty funny. Even though a lot of the comedy is based around misunderstandings, I'm happy that they generally work them out quickly and with little drama. However, will the episode 11 curse strike and turn this chill show into something more dramatic than suits it? I guess I'll find out when I get there (writers please stop doing this).

keyblader1985 posted...

Meanwhile I noticed I also have a new favorite mangaka. I was reading Virgin's Empire (a pretty shameless yuri ecchi/slice of life), and the art seemed familiar. Turned out it was the same artist as a manga I read a long time ago called Maka-Maka, which at first glance is just yuri smut, but on closer inspection is still smut, but with a little bit more.

I wish I could read manga/webtoons without getting a headache in like 1 minute. This all has me intrigued. I'm always up for yuri smut.

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how does reading an image give you a headache

turn down the bightness dude, or turn on flux if it's because it's too bright

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Joe_Biden posted...

how does reading an image give you a headache

I have a chronic illness that includes significant damage to my nervous system and spinal chord. Problems trigger off the weirdest things and it's fucking annoying.

Like I can watch live action stuff with very little problem but anime with it's lower frame rate borderline incapacitates me after like 5 minutes some days. With video games it's seemingly random. Some games I can handle for a couple hours, some games I can't take for more than a few minutes.

I also can't handle any level of hype or emotional music which often double dips with anime.

Course it's not just that kind of stuff, I can't stand up for more than a few minutes at a time or do anything that gets my heart rate up above 80 or so without getting really shaky and if I keep it up I'll just end up convulsing. Eating any foods besides brown rice or taking any medicine at all. It's rough. I've almost died several times over the last year.

I did just start a new medicine a few days ago. I'm hopeful that it will improve this to some degree and I seem to tolerate it better than most meds. It's so frustrating being stuck in my room all day and not being able to just watch anime and play video games or exercise.

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deoxxys posted...

I know but its a lot of micromanaging, especially in late game when a lot of my processing power goes into dodging.

Yeah, that's been roughly my experience as well. I actually managed to clear the Wall with her today with an actual Frost build, and it wasn't actually as awkward to transition as I previously thought it was. I still used her weapon fairly extensively in cases where I didn't have another frost spell handy or enemies were lined up nicely for it, but I got some much stronger frost-applying spells that put out way more overall damage.

deoxxys posted...

Thats really cool I didnt think of using Fate Shield like that, I usually have just been using it from the back square on the half that doesnt have the enemies.

Funny enough I should have thought of this considering I have been using her dash to reposition Zenith.

Same. In practice, I tried doing it in that run today, and I don't think it's possible to have it start less than two squares from the right side, which resulted in a whole bunch of attempts where it just disappeared immediately. Using one of my back corners may still be the better option in many cases, but that's something I'll have to get a better feel for as I progress in gitting gud.

deoxxys posted...

While we are talking about deckbuilding Rougelikes, I still want to try these:
-Monster Train
-Ring of Pain
-Griftlands (still in early access)

Some of these are still getting updates so I'll be good not playing them for a while.

I picked up Hades a week or so ago, and it's as fantastic as everyone says it is. I got my first clear yesterday, and have done several more since then. Good times all around.

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YoukaiSlayer posted...

I wish I could read manga/webtoons without getting a headache in like 1 minute.

tbh, there's only so much manga/webtoons I can read in a single sitting without starting to develop a headache (whereas a book I could read for hours with no ill effect).

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I'm really enjoying the OP for tonikawa. Was stuck in my head for hours.

The new season of anime is finally starting and I checked up on a bit. Somewhat sad to see impressions of the yuri anime are that there is really bad jarring 3DCG and that they completely lose the tone of the original. Hopefully that improves or somehow doesn't bother me.

That not actually an isekai but might as well be about the weakest dude living in an end game town appears to be fine which is about the highest I had hoped for it so thats good.

A little curious to see re:zero 2nd season 2 (fucking stop naming things this way japan) has under a 7. People seemed to really like 2nd season 1 so I'm wondering what they did to manage this reaction. I'm still only half way through 2nd season 1 though.

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YoukaiSlayer posted...

That not actually an isekai but might as well be about the weakest dude living in an end game town appears to be fine which is about the highest I had hoped for it so thats good.

I read the manga up until the point that the aggregator stopped hosting new chapters (out of respect for the official localization) and I liked what I read of it. The concept is something of a one-note gimmick and the cast has its issues, but it works on the whole.

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platinum end ended, I guess

in a very...bleak way

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adjl posted...

I picked up Hades a week or so ago, and it's as fantastic as everyone says it is. I got my first clear yesterday, and have done several more since then. Good times all around.

Well if we are talking about more then just deckbuilder rougelikes/lites then theres a swathe of ones I have been meaning to play XD

I do really really want to play Hades but I am a big fan of Supergiant Games and I want to play them all in order.
I got to at least try Pyre first, which was their last game.

Going to go do a Eden run.

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keyblader1985 posted...

I definitely want to try Eden, but right now I'm still playing Slay the Spire pretty heavy.

Meanwhile I noticed I also have a new favorite mangaka. I was reading Virgin's Empire (a pretty shameless yuri ecchi/slice of life), and the art seemed familiar. Turned out it was the same artist as a manga I read a long time ago called Maka-Maka, which at first glance is just yuri smut, but on closer inspection is still smut, but with a little bit more.

And it's also the same artist from Colorful (TV show, not movie). I haven't seen the manga, but the anime is an absolutely hilarious over-the-top parody of guys making fools of themselves trying to get a glimpse of women's underwear. The English dub in particular is great and frequently lampshades just how dumb the whole thing is.

I had bought Slay the Spire on Steam, but it wasn't my cup of tea, so I ended up refunding it and getting Shadow of War Definitive Edition and Sunset Overdrive. Neither of which I can play since getting a new gpu is still a huge pain in the ass. I'm not a huge roguelike fan, but I thought the cards and deck aspect would appeal to me more.

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sunset is fun

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It was literally the one Xbox exclusive game I was interested in. And now it's on PC too so I can play it there (if I ever get a non-potato PC).

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i wish iron chef manga got a sequel

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Sunset was my biggest interest for Xbone games too along with Scalebound, which unfortunately ended up getting cancelled. Figured for $5 it was worth the risk. I would've also gotten Ryse, but apparently I get charged tax on Steam now, so that's a big ole bummer.

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Ugh I screwed up the best run of Eden ever.

I was doing a genocide run with Saffron and I decided to take advantage of her large health pool and sustain artifact and decided to make "Vampire Tank Saffron". Went with Miseri right away, took a quite a few great poison spells, but it was Leech/Devour/HealthPotion/Rest I was after so I could sustain my large health pool and I figured since most of these spells were rare/epic I would have to rely on Miseri cards to be the brunt of my damage. Ending up getting most of my heal cards and some great poison artifacts (listed in below image; its even color coded).

Took some strong Phalanx cards for barriers (deck shield since big deck).
Took more cards from Convergence to take advantage of the Trinity effects you get from Minnie gun (starter card) and deal huge chunks of damage combined with time stop (starter weapon).

Of course you would think this deck would be too cluttered but the starter artifact heals more the more cards you have, not.

Artifacts; color-coded:
https://i.imgur.com/ORazHDB.png

I was in Eden and I decided to go for a true genocide route by killing the shop keeper too........she beat even my god deck.

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deoxxys posted...

Well if we are talking about more then just deckbuilder rougelikes/lites then theres a swathe of ones I have been meaning to play XD

Somehow, I completely missed the word "deckbuilding" in your other post. Whoops >.>

deoxxys posted...

I do really really want to play Hades but I am a big fan of Supergiant Games and I want to play them all in order.

I have no reservations about saying it's their best game. I haven't played Pyre yet, so that's not a complete opinion, but as much as I loved Bastion and liked Transistor (it certainly wasn't bad, but it wasn't on the same level as Bastion), Hades blows them out of the water.

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YOOOO

Anyone else catch the Monster Hunter Digital event today?

That was AWESOME.

Also, DEMO is coming either today or tomorrow!

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adjl posted...

Somehow, I completely missed the word "deckbuilding" in your other post. Whoops >.>

I have no reservations about saying it's their best game. I haven't played Pyre yet, so that's not a complete opinion, but as much as I loved Bastion and liked Transistor (it certainly wasn't bad, but it wasn't on the same level as Bastion), Hades blows them out of the water.

To me Bastion was great, Transistor fell short because they had some cool ideas with weapon and sub weapons giving effects but the system was too restrictive to allow for lots of experimentation. Also as cool as the the aesthetic is, the areas started looking the same after a while.

Looking forward to playing Dead Cells.


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