What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I finally got to go back and continue playing DMC3 on DMD mode.  I just beat Mission 16 and it was hell. It really shows me just how much easier of a game MGRR is, not to mention this series' reboot title, DmC. I already hated the boss fight with Lady, but naturally it was a nightmare on this difficulty with her stupid grenades always hitting you from off-screen and doing a shit-ton of damage. As determined as I am to finally complete this difficulty, I just don't find it fun anymore. I still love the game itself, but I wouldn't recommend anyone to play this game on anything above Very Hard difficulty unless you're really just a hardcore fan of these types of action games and need to push yourself as far as you can go.

[Kiddington]

Why is there such an inane shortage of Fire-types in virtually every Pokemon game anymore? Christ, I'm playing Pearl right now and there are literally only two options, and one of which (Chimchar) I can't even get now because I didn't take that as my starter (and I'm way too far ahead to start over at this point). My only other choice? Ponyta/Rapidash. 

So far I like Platinum a lot better, so I'm thinking of just jumping back and finally finishing that file I started years ago instead. Pearl is just...........I dunno. The Pokedex is way too limited (half of the Sinnoh Dex, like Magmortar and Rhyperior I can't even get until AFTER the Elite 4, which is completely idiotic), the version exclusives totally suck compared to Diamond..........like it's a good game otherwise, I like it wayyyyy better than any of the Gen 3 games sans the remakes, but the amount of available Pokemon is just way too low. Like I've never had this hard of a time deciding on a final team.

So anyway yeah, if I haven't mentioned it already I'm basically getting caught up on the one series I'm more ridiculously behind than anything at this point. I have Y and I really wanna play it, but I need to majorly get caught up here first. Hoping by the end of the year I'll be through Gens 4 and 5, but we'll see I guess.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Why is there such an inane shortage of Fire-types in virtually every Pokemon game anymore?

Only Diamond and Pearl have that problem, because for some reason they only bothered to include two evolutionary lines for fire-types (including Chimchar's line). The other games past them have a much better variety of fire-types to choose from during the game. The Generation 5 games introduced the most fire-types of any generation to date, actually.

[Kiddington]

Why is there such an inane shortage of Fire-types in virtually every Pokemon game anymore?

Only Diamond and Pearl have that problem, because for some reason they only bothered to include two evolutionary lines for fire-types (including Chimchar's line). The other games past them have a much better variety of fire-types to choose from during the game. The Generation 5 games introduced the most fire-types of any generation to date, actually.

Ah, well that's encouraging. Yeah I haven't gotten to that point yet; I'll probably start with Black once I finish Pearl/Platinum, whichever really, then White 2 (or vice-versa, White and Black 2). Then I can start Y.

One thing I'll say about Gen 4 though, these are by far my favorite starters in the series. I love all three families; like usually the Water-type starter I could go either way on, but Empoleon is awesome (and Water/Steel is a pretty sweet combo). I think I like the Gen 4 starters even more than the original group.

Next time though, I really need to pick Chimchar. I should've researched these games more, and just how sadly they lack good Fire-types; in Pearl I went with Turtwig and Platinum I chose Piplup. Live and learn I guess.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I didn't know where else to post this, but I only just came to realize something interesting:

The guy who directed all of the DMC sequels (obviously not counting the Ninja Theory reboot) and Dragon's Dogma is the same guy who directed Power Stone 2 and Capcom Vs SNK 2 (and maybe another fighting game, but I can't remember right now). Bit of a mixed bag, isn't he? As for PS2, it's easily his most unique game from what I can see of his directing credits, and IMO it's probably the 2nd best from what I've played of his work. Looking at his fighting game repertoire, it makes more sense how he was able to incorporate a really deep and complex combat system into DMC3 and 4 with his knowledge of fighting game mechanics in the CVSNK games that he worked on. Of course, DMC2 was shit, but maybe that could be attributed to Capcom's interference from above, combined with the directer and his team's lack of experience making third person action/adventure games of this nature at the time. Then they made it up with DMC3, which was awesome, and kind of got lazy with DMC4, which was an adequate sequel but also very uninspired and kind of forgettable at times, if I were to be honest. It also felt more tedious than it needed to be. I haven't played Dragon's Dogma, but the general consensus seems to be that it's a very flawed RPG that may or may not be worth playing if you are able to appreciate its few strengths well enough to look past its numerous weaknesses (namely that it seems to excel at combat and boss fights, and seems to suck at almost everything else, compared to most RPGs). Once again, the flaws with that game may be due to the director and the dev team's relative inexperience with the genre.

[Rynnec]

I was thinking about getting Dragon's Dogma until I learned it didn't have a proper multiplayer mode. Still nice to hear that its combat is excellent, most RPG's have rather boring combat, imo.

Itsuno's also the director for both Rival Schools games and the first Street Fighter Alpha (all of  which I'm interested in playing). So he must really be experienced in combat mechanics.

Then they made it up with DMC3, which was awesome, and kind of got lazy with DMC4, which was a adequate sequel but also very uninspired and kind of forgettable at times, if I were to be honest. It also felt more tedious than it needed to be.

I think the PC version helped improve DMC4's reception a little, with the addition of Turbo Mode, an extra difficulty level, and all of the crazy mods I've seen. I'd like to try out that version some day, but I'm not sure if my laptop will be able to play it properly.

Speaking of DMC and Rival Schools, Itsuno's really interested in making a DMC5 and Rival Schools 3, among other ideas he has. This guy really knows his audience, and I hope Capcom utilizes the ideas he has. If they were to make a DMC5 and Rival School 3, and a Dragon's Dogma with proper co-op and whatnot for the PS4, then I would definitely be on board.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I thought the director of Dragon's Dogma did Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter? Now there's an underrated game. But then, most of Capcom's good stuff gets buried rather quickly while generic stuff like Lost Planet somehow continues on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The proper thing to say would be that I want Rival Schools 3, first, since that series has been dormant for so long. However....I haven't played any of the older games, so I'd be lying if I said that would be my most anticipated (I'll eventually get to those games someday, though). Naturally, I'm a huge DMC fan, so I'd like to see a DMC5 the most, but that's only from the games that he mentioned he might work on in the future. In all honesty, more than anything else, I'd LOVE to see a Power Stone 3, but that game series is even more forgotten than Rival Schools, these days, and the poor performance of the PSP port both critically and sales-wise ended up probably being the series' death-sentence, as far as Capcom goes.

As for Dragon's Dogma, I was interested in trying it ONLY because it was made by the team that made DMC3 (and now apparently PS2, as well). However, what scared me off wasn't the unrefined co-op (I prefer single-player, anyways). It was the fact that I naturally don't care for RPGs, for the most part, and to find out that this game had even more of the tedious stuff about RPGs that usually tend to drive me away, I figured that even a great combat system wouldn't be enough to make up for it.

Seriously, though, I'm still waiting for my RPG hack n' slash hybrid. If they were to make an RPG that had a combat system flat-out on par with Ninja Gaiden, DMC, or Bayonetta, it'd automatically make it worth the investment that I usually don't care to partake in for most RPGs. At the end of the day, my main problem with RPGs is that I don't have fun playing most of them because the main thing you're supposed to do, which is killing monsters and enemies and whatnot to progress through the story, is flat-out boring and tedious in most cases. Get rid of that problem, and at least keep the story decent without letting it get too self-indulgent (a la FFXIII), and you'd basically have what I'd consider the perfect RPG that could appeal to even me.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I thought the director of Dragon's Dogma did Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter? Now there's an underrated game. But then, most of Capcom's good stuff gets buried rather quickly while generic stuff like Lost Planet somehow continues on.

It still baffles me that somehow we got not 2, but 3 Lost Planet games. I mean, OK, I can understand after the first game got lukewarm reception from critics and moderate sales, it was worth trying for a sequel to see if it could compete with the likes of big names such as Gears of War and Uncharted in the TPS genre. But then the 2nd game felt flat on its ass in terms of both critical reception and sales, so the series should have ended there, but Capcom saw fit to not only give the series a 3rd chance, but to also outsource it to a completely unproven Western developer, Spark Unlimited (who have recently gone on to make the abysmal Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z). They are willing to pour all of that time, money, and resources into something that people clearly don't want and never even asked for, yet for some reason it's too much for them to do something that people would absolutely love. Something say like....making Mega Man X 9 with SNES style graphics in the same vein that they did MM9 and 10 a few years ago. It would probably be pretty cheap to make and inevitably give them a decent return on the digital market if released multiplatform for both the Wii and 3DS's virtual consoles, along with XBLA and PSN. But, no, this is Capcom. It's run by businessmen who have probably never even picked up a video game controller in their lives, much less an actual video game.

[Foggle]

Dragon's Dogma is an excellent game. The combat is fun as hell, and the world is really enjoyable to explore and play around in. I played through it twice (a rare feat from me for a 40+ hour game) and had an absolute blast both times with two wildly different builds. There is no multiplayer at all, btw, though you can upload your pawn for other players to use. There's also a huge raid boss that people fight one at a time and then everyone who beats it within an hour of its server death gets tons of stuff. These are cool gimmicks, but nothing more. I highly recommend the game to anyone who likes a good action RPG.

Seriously, though, I'm still waiting for my RPG hack n' slash hybrid. If they were to make an RPG that had a combat system flat-out on par with Ninja Gaiden, DMC, or Bayonetta, it'd automatically make it worth the investment that I usually don't care to partake in for most RPGs.

It's definitely not going to be on par with any of those titles due to lack of budget, but Drakengard 3 looks a lot like a more RPG-ish and story-driven version of DMC.

[gunswordfist]

Links to videos of good DMC4 mods, please.

DMC5 would be my most anticipated game in the ever, of course. I'm glad to see that a good director for the games is still around.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, due to your recommendation, the fact that I was already kind of interested in this game for the combat and boss fights, and because I can find it for really cheap now, I'll probably hit it up sometime after I finally get around to Bayonetta.

I'll also look into Drakengard 3 if I get the chance.

[Foggle]

Well, due to your recommendation, the fact that I was already kind of interested in this game for the combat and boss fights, and because I can find it for really cheap now, I'll probably hit it up sometime after I finally get around to Bayonetta.

Get Dark Arisen if you can. It contains both the original game and the expansion pack, plus all the patches and such.

Let me try to explain the awesomeness of the gameplay. On my second run, I played as a Magic Archer. My attacks included arrows that bounced off walls for extended periods of time, homing arrows that spawned more homing arrows upon hitting enemies, and the ability to light myself on fire and run around setting everyone aflame.

I'll also look into Drakengard 3 if I get the chance.

From what I've heard/seen, the ground combat looks to be somewhere between the original Devil May Cry and DmC in terms of quality, while the aerial combat seems like a slightly lesser Star Fox 64. Nothing groundbreaking by any means, but should be tons of fun if you're into weird low budget Japanese niche games like Suda51's output. Plus, it's got a story penned by the two best writers in the gaming industry (Yoko Taro and Sawako Natori) and one of the finest soundtracks ever composed for a video game.

[Nel_Annette]

Went through all of the Mechonis Core event in Xenoblade. That whole sequence was awesome. I don't think I've yelled "holy shit" that much at a game in a long, long time.

Spoiler

Zanza

[close]

is an evil motherfucker.

[Kiddington]

Has anyone tried the new Kirby game yet? I was gonna pick it up earlier but the closest Walmart was all out and I really didn't feel like going out of the way for it. I did kinda want some opinions though, just 'cause.

..........oh yeah, speaking of 3DS, finally broke into Fire Emblem: Awakening today after having sat on it for months. Definitely liking it so far!