Video Game discussion

[ketaro]

Max difficulty means you just have to beat on things longer and you need a ranged attack to deal with archers.  Just stagger them with a Destruction dual-cast and then wail on them with a one-hander or two until they stand back up again.  Rinse & repeat.  Speed up the process by smithing a bunch of trivial items like iron arrows, iron daggers, and leather bracers and then improve a suit of steel armor (or better, Wolf Armor from the Companions which you can even sneak in) and steel melee weapons with the Steel Smithing perk and just invest in Armsman and Juggernaut for multiplicative bonuses on weapons and armor that's effectively superior to Daedric gear once you hit Expert smithing (and gets ridiculous if you also abuse high-end Fortify Smithing potions and enchantments).

I know how to abuse this stuff, but that is boring after doing it once.

And then there's the Legendary Dragons and their every stat drain shouts 

[Raineh Daze]

My main complaint for Skyrim was that they didn't evolve the combat worth a damn.

Take the timing elements of Demon's/Dark Souls as a better example.

It remains a wonderful sandbox for modders, as sometimes creating something is more fun than simply being the consumer.

On the contrary; I find it... well, better than its predecessors. Weaponry choices are at least a little different, and you don't have Morrowind's 'click away and hope for the best' issue to deal with. Still limited, but definitely an improvement.

Annoyingly, they removed hand-to-hand as a skill.

But that's why mods exist. The biggest strength of the Elder Scrolls games is that you can find the stuff to fit it to your desires; so long as the engine works, everything's good and generally fixable. XD

[SorO_Lost]

I picked up the Zelda DS bundle just for LbW, missed the freebie four sword through. Thus far, I love it. LttP was an extremely solid game and LbW basically takes that foundation and attempts to improve it. Overall, there is some hits and misses in that attempt but it did a fine job.

One example is the Maiamai hunt. Conceptually it's great, you're rewarded for slashing every bush and picking up every rock even if such through exploration is trivial. With a 100 of these little things hidden around the relatively small map it makes the first fifty or so pretty easy to snag as well. The poor execution in this area is they don't appear until after you bomb the cave and speak to Mother Maiamai. So if it so happens this cave is one of the last things you'll find (because bombs cost 50 rupees and if you're like me the new toys demand priority) you'll be forced to double back some.

The freedom in dungeon order is kind of nice too. The bosses are ok challenges and deal enough damage that most deliver the right amount of challenge without being too difficult. The problem is, because they had to plan for you conquering the dungeons in a certain order no difficulty curve is expedience over the main dungeon play. Take turtle rock as a prime example, in LttP it could be frustrating to time the platforms without the magic cape and there was plenty of monsters designed to wear down your hearts (sic, the bunny cacti). In LbW you face one of those. And hearts are embedding throughout the walls and are replaced upon leaving the dungeon. Which you'll do once for both upper corners (and both restore life, one replaces fairies) and you'll be offered the chance again when you open the half-way point.

Still in the process of playing it but overall it's a good game.

[Raineh Daze]

There's a Zelda bundle? :O

-Has been playing OoT.-

[X-Codes]

There's a Zelda bundle? :O

-Has been playing OoT.-

I think he means the game/system bundle.

[SorO_Lost]

I think he means the game/system bundle.

Yeah, didn't care to buy the (3)DS until now.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yeah, I wish I had gotten the bundle.  Oh well, still very pleased with my purchase, best game since LttP.  Would be nice if other good 3DS games came out so I don't end up having the system *just* for LBW, though.... (All the games I've wanted thus far - other than LBW -  are DS, and I had a DS already).

[X-Codes]

Yeah, I wish I had gotten the bundle.  Oh well, still very pleased with my purchase, best game since LttP.  Would be nice if other good 3DS games came out so I don't end up having the system *just* for LBW, though.... (All the games I've wanted thus far - other than LBW -  are DS, and I had a DS already).

I take it you don't like JRPG's or TRPG's.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is critically acclaimed.  SMT: Devil Survivor: Soul Hackers is a re-release of the DS game.  Speaking of, SMT 4 is also on the system (an exclusive, I believe).  Bravely Default came out earlier this week (sold out on release day at my local game shop).  Finally, it also finally has a solid collection of games that you expect to see on Nintendo handhelds these days: Rune Factory 4, Mario Kart 7 (actually pretty old), Pokemon, and some Mario games.  The 3DS will also apparently become the first Nintendo handheld to have a Smash Bros. game later this year.

[Kuroimaken]

Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, SMTIV is DA SHIZNIT. One of the damn best games I've played in recent months.

Also, Devil Survivor Overclocked and Soul Hackers are different games.

EDIT: Both remixes, yes. But different games.

[brujon]

Max difficulty means you just have to beat on things longer and you need a ranged attack to deal with archers.  Just stagger them with a Destruction dual-cast and then wail on them with a one-hander or two until they stand back up again.  Rinse & repeat.  Speed up the process by smithing a bunch of trivial items like iron arrows, iron daggers, and leather bracers and then improve a suit of steel armor (or better, Wolf Armor from the Companions which you can even sneak in) and steel melee weapons with the Steel Smithing perk and just invest in Armsman and Juggernaut for multiplicative bonuses on weapons and armor that's effectively superior to Daedric gear once you hit Expert smithing (and gets ridiculous if you also abuse high-end Fortify Smithing potions and enchantments).

I know how to abuse this stuff, but that is boring after doing it once.

And then there's the Legendary Dragons and their every stat drain shouts 

Several mods help alleviate the issue... I have them all installed. My Skyrim is heavily modified, and i mean HEAVILY. And i find that the combination of balance/content/aesthetic mods i have now are sufficient to cover most of Skyrim's shortcomings.

Difficulty is ramped up, enemies scale better, remaining threatening even at higher levels. Their AI is also changed and improved - Enemy Mages will actually have and *use* Ward spells, other enemies BLOCK more often, detection mechanics are also tweaked so stealth won't be auto-win after you get like 50 stealth and some perks and cast muffle. Weapon damage and armor mechanics are also tweaked, so you will be able to tank far less for the same amount of armor - meaning upgrading armor much, much more rewarding.

Everything in my Skyrim is rebalanced is the TL;DR version of that. There are several mods working in tandem to reach the balance i find myself most comfortable with. There are some install order related things to worry about, but for other stuff, there's a program that does the load-order organizing thing for you automatically, which is really useful when you get past 20+ mods. If i wanted to, i could include even more mods to make the game more interesting, but i just haven't gotten to that point yet. I heavily recommend everyone giving skyrim another shot at a heavily modded version.

[Kethrian]

Say, kids. Anyone know some relatively recent turn-based strategy games? I've been playing XCOM: Enemy Within a lot, and while it's a great game, I'm starting to get burned out by it - but I still want to play strategy games. Bonus points for sci-fi.

Oh!  Totally forgot to mention one of the greatest turn-based strategy games to come out recently: The Banner Saga!

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yeah, I wish I had gotten the bundle.  Oh well, still very pleased with my purchase, best game since LttP.  Would be nice if other good 3DS games came out so I don't end up having the system *just* for LBW, though.... (All the games I've wanted thus far - other than LBW -  are DS, and I had a DS already).

I take it you don't like JRPG's or TRPG's.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is critically acclaimed.  SMT: Devil Survivor: Soul Hackers is a re-release of the DS game.  Speaking of, SMT 4 is also on the system (an exclusive, I believe).  Bravely Default came out earlier this week (sold out on release day at my local game shop).  Finally, it also finally has a solid collection of games that you expect to see on Nintendo handhelds these days: Rune Factory 4, Mario Kart 7 (actually pretty old), Pokemon, and some Mario games.  The 3DS will also apparently become the first Nintendo handheld to have a Smash Bros. game later this year.

I am a fan of JRPGs, in fact.  I got the DS originally for Suikoden Tierkreis.  When that turned out to be a bit of a letdown, I was still glad I got it for Radiant Historia, one of the best RPGs I've played in the past decade.  I also have Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, though I have barely played it yet, FF Tactics A2 (also barely played yet...seems disappointing compared to ye olde FF Tactics original), and the re-released Chrono Trigger.
I've never really looked into the Fire Emblem series, maybe I should.
I...know even less about Persona/SMT (whose are the same series, right?).
Bravely Default...I am by no means a graphics snob and to this day I enjoy 8-bit and 16-bit games.  But...I utterly can't stand the look / art style of that game.  Silly reason perhaps, but I kind of just ignored it.
None of those other games interest me except Pokémon.  But I haven't gotten a Pokémon game since the original Red/Blue due to the asinine "one save file" bs.  I really wanted Pokémon Conquest, too...  But I'm not buying a game twice just so my wife and I can both play it.
Smash Brothers...I plan to get a Wii U the second "X", Bayonetta 2, Hyrule Warriors, maybe the new Zelda (pending on how they decide to go with the whole "motion controls" thing), etc... start coming out, so I figured I'd just get it for that system anyway.

Thanks for the suggestions, though.

[Kuroimaken]

Not quite. Shin Megami Tensei is the original series; Persona is a spinoff. Oddly enough, Persona seems to have acquired a larger fanbase.

I highly recommend both, though I like SMT over Persona. Be warned, though, the difficulty on SMT can be a notch higher than you are accustomed to in a JRPG.

Also, since this thread has reached 50 pages:

SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!