Whatcha play'n?

[Farore]

I've been so busy recently I haven't had time to play much T_T I do try to make time for my weekly Saturday night raid in WoW, and then usually end up goofing around on there some more... Have I mentioned I love achievements?

I'm still working my way through Graces F. It is really enjoyable, I just never seem to have the amount of time I want to devote to it.

I've also been itching to play some more Skyrim ever since the announcement of the DLC, and every time I don't Alduin looks down on my with disappointment.

And finally I'm looking forward to GW2 Beta this weekend!

[Tehwilburforce]

GT5 GT5 GT5 GT5 GT5 GT5...
I'll just go be obsessed with fine automobiles in the corner. Don't mind me.

[Fixxxer 117]

Nah mate, Forza 4 is where it's at

[TheNesta]

I just finished my first playthrough of Atelier Meruru, and really enjoyed it. Can't wait to start the next playthrough. Aside from that, still Diablo 3, but I haven't even logged on in a few days. Might do that later tonight though.

[Pie]

Wow Adol, what you wrote about Gundam vs Zeta Gundam sounds really awesome!! XD Since the PS1 era, I've always wanted to play a robot piloting game that has fast,fluid controls and to play a great fast paced action game where I could one day build up enough technical skill to do cool things naturally and fluidly. XD It just sounds really awesome how you can co-op partner with Alex- be an awesome team, and being able to duel with him intensely on equal terms! >D It sounds oh-so-awesome! I really need to look more into this game!

I'm only somewhat into gundam, I think I like the non-gundam looking robots more since there are so many Gundams in the universe. I used to think that it'd be fun that since Gundams are usually the top robot models in each of the Gundam series, eventually all mechs in the universe will be Gundam! One day, people will find a super material better than gundamium called zakunium and the hero will end up piloting the new super one-of-a-kind mech, a Zaku!!

Oh, and I LOVE the beam sword and heat axe sounds in the series!! It feels like an iconic trait to anything Gundam trademarked. If the sounds aren't there, then it's not a true Gundam media. XD

Edit: oh! and those time line changing elements in the game sound really cool! =D

[Pie]

@Nesta

I've never played an Atelier game, but I kept hearing that they were really good. I'm impressed at how visually impressive the cel shading has been for the recent ones. =) I have Ar Tonelico 2 sitting on my shelf waiting for me to play it one day, Ar Tonelico is similar in style and can be considered a spin off of the series kinda, right?

[Adol The Red]

@Pie

The gundam game is really fun. I don't know if I mentioned, but it is a third person game. Just wanted to add that detail in case I forgot. There are a huge number of MS in the game too, and it's fairly well balanced. It really is a lot of fun, and is one of the few co-op experiences I've ever gone full tilt into.

And I see you mentioned Ar Tonelico. I am an absolute fanatic of that series. Fanatic. Anyway, if you're going to play AT2 I might suggest doing it on an older (non HD) tv. The battle system in AT2 has a guard mechanic that uses sliding bars. You have to hit the button as they cross a line to perform a successful guard, but sadly, the game has no option for calibrating for the delay on HD tvs. Otherwise, you'd have to learn how early or late you're supposed to hit the guard button. This takes place every battle except in the very first few, and usually involves multiple hits to guard against each time. You'll also be hitting two buttons to do it most of the time (of course both will be at the same time, they don't have you trying to guard two separate attack patterns or anything, you just have two characters to protect). Hope that doesn't make it sound off putting. AT2 is my favorite in the series, and I found the mechanic enjoyable once I got used to it. Would just be great if they let you calibrate for the delay.

@anyone who for some reason would want to listen to me gush about Ys.

Completed my hard mode playthrough of Ys2. Man that was a lot of fun. The bosses were an absolute blast, though whats funny is after needing multiple attempts on the first 2 I got through the next 3 (the last two of which are argueably the hardest fights in the game) in one go. And Zava, my favorite boss to fight in the game, I actually finished off with one HP remaining. Man I love when it works out like that. The regular enemies were certainly more difficult, too, and forced me to use my magic a lot more. Normally I just sword everything, but adding a charged fire blast to the beginning of every attack certainly helped me not get hurt so much. Ah, but the bosses. Ys is probably the only game series that makes me want to keep saves before all the boss fights, but then, tough boss fights is one of the series' hallmarks. I gotta say, though, I was expecting more from Dalles. He still wasn't that tough of a fight. I beat him in one try and lost maybe just over a third of my life, and I wasn't even trying to dodge his attacks, which are mostly undodgable anyway. I don't know. I mean, I love mopping the floor with that bastard, but it would be nice to have to use effort to beat him. There is one more difficulty level... but I think that would just be masochistic. At least the final boss gave me a good fight worthy of his long and awesome song, and I had to retry to beat him. Man what a blast.

On another note, Gravity Rush comes out tomorrow, and I'm very much looking forward to that.

[TheNesta]

Atelier

The Atelier series has been around forever, and my first exposure with it was I think Iris 2 on PS2. For whatever reason it didn't hold me that long though (I think I would enjoy going back to it now though). Later I tried Atelier Rorona the first in the Arland trilogy (the first three PS3 games) and was disheartened to find that I wasn't gelling with it either. Really unfortunate with that one, because like you I thought the game looked gorgeous. I remember Roll was watching me play it and we were both like "Man, I wish this game was better, it looks so good." (Again, I think I'd enjoy going back to it).

Anyways, for whatever reason I decided to go full-in with Atelier Totori, and ended up buying it when it came out. And I fell in absolute love with it. I can only really speak to the three Arland games, but they are just a refreshingly new take on JRPGs.

Basically, there is a small plot that progresses you through the game, but it's mostly just lighthearted. There's never a situation where you have to save the world, there isn't even a villain. It's just a lighthearted adventure that let's the characters build up friendships and roam around the world doing various things. Don't get me wrong, I love the big epic stories, but this was just something new, and interesting for me.

The majority of the games you are juggling a few different tasks. Exploring, Crafting, and trying to meet the requirements to keep the story going. There is an in-game time limit to things, but it still feels like a relaxing experience overall.

Most of the characters are well written, and there's a lot of cute and funny dialog between them. The localization is good too, but even if you don't like the dub (which I think is great), you can play with the original Japanese dub. And as has been mentioned the games just look beautiful, with super cute character designs.

I really recommend checking it out if you like JRPGs, and are maybe looking for something a little more lighthearted and fun. Both Totori, and Meruru will have taken spots on my Games of The Year lists for 2011, and 2012 respectively.

Ar Tonelico

You're right about Ar Tonelico, it is a bit of a spin-off, made by the same studio, Gust. Like Atelier, there is a major emphasis on crafting, or synthesis as they call it in these games. However Ar Tonelico is structured more like a traditional JRPG, with an epic story, deeper combat systems, and interestingly enough, a quasi-dating sim aspect to it.

Like Adol, I'm a really huge fan of this series too, and as I think we've discussed on this very forum, the music is absolutely fantastic. Really some of the best game soundtracks out there. And if you're in a position to play Ar Tonelico 2, I highly suggest it, because it's easily the best game in the series, and perhaps one of my favorite JRPGs.

As for the other two games. Ar Tonelico 1 is a fine game, if you play it first there's a few callbacks to it that fans will appreciate. And Ar Tonelico 3 is... well, it's alright. It has problems, but I still enjoyed it.

Last two things. The HDTV thing that Adol mentioned is interesting. I don't recall having that problem, but it did take me a long time to figure out the battle system... so... I'm not sure. I will say that I've only played the game on a backwards compatible PS3 w/ HDMI. Though that had it's own complications, as I got corrupted save data a lot, and I think other people had that problem too.

Final thing. Ar Tonelico is very fanservicey, lots of cheesecake and innuendo. Personally I enjoy that stuff, but I thought it bared mentioning. Where as Atelier is almost entirely innocent.

Ys

I've tried playing some Ys lately, but the platforming is difficult for me (I am really, really, really, super, terrible at platforming) so I got to a point in OiF where I just couldn't deal with it anymore. It's really disappointing because I was diggin' the game otherwise. So, I guess I'm wondering if either Ys VII or the new Origins games that just came out on Steam are lighter on platforming or not.

[Adol The Red]

@Nesta

Ys Chronicles (Ys 1 & 2) don't have any jumping or platforming. You don't even have an attack button, actually. Back then they were trying to see if a battle system where you run into the enemy at a certain angle instead of slashing with an attack button would fly with gamers. It didn't really, but they are fun games. Like I said, though, tough bosses are a part of the series. That's not to say that they're all rediculously hard. Most of the bosses in Ys 1 are alright. Except for the boss in the mine, and the end boss. Very tough. Also very exploration heavy. You need to search every nook and cranny to find all the items.

As for the guarding problem with AT2, I first played it on an older TV, and noticed that it didn't line up on my HDTV. Of course, I guess it makes sense that if you originally played it on an HDTV you would just learn the timing as you were shown it. And yeah, I had the save corruption problem with both AT and AT2, so it is best to play them on a PS2.

[Tony May-San]

I've been rather busy lately actually. I feel like quite a geek for saying this but.. Pokemon has taken over my life.

I recently finished playing Black and decided it would be a good idea to play throught the previous games backwards to fill up the pokedex on black. oh how i was wrong. im now playing Black, Heartgold and Sapphire, Emerald came in the post yesterday, im expecting Leafgreen in the post tomorrow and im about to start diamond once i've finished breeding my party on heartgold..

All that whilst at the same time trying to platinum 6 games from my playstation stack. Skyrim, Bleach: Soul Ressureccion, Assassins Creed Revalations and the Prince of Persia HD remake (3 plats on one disc, cant complain!)