Games, Games, GAMES!! (Besides iDOLM@STER, of course XD)

[GangXia]

Sauntered to Island 7 in Touhoumon. Accidentally stepped in front of an Aroma Lady and... Battle! With a lv90 Ex Medicine! FFFUUUUUUUU

I managed to win, thankfully.

[TaKai]

Been playing Battlefield 3 recently. I'm still amazed at how badly the writers botched the single-player mode.
On the other hand, I managed to get C4, Claymores, Anti-Tank mines, Stinger Missile Launcher, Mortar Emplacement, and Explosives specialization. You can probably see where this is going.

[SakuraMaxX]

TaKai, which system do you play on?  If you play on Xbox, hit me up and we should play sometime (Antares Zwei).  Maybe if I can get the cash together to get a new i5 for my PC, I could play the PC version too..

[TaKai]

I'm on the Xbox. Gamertag is Sum Ghai.

[JNiles]

Started Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2.  This game is brutal...

[Cael K.]

Started Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2.  This game is brutal...

You just made me interested in this game.

Actually, MegaTen was one of those series I've kinda wanted to get into, but never did. Having a monstrous stack of games to play probably has something to do with that. ^^

... Never mind the fact that most RPGs I play end up with the play time counter either capped, or in triple digits...

[JNiles]

A good portion of my backlog _is_ SMT.  I've got a bunch of the older games, the 2 Devil Summoner games with Raidou Kuzunoha (Taisho-era detective with demons), and I recently picked up the infamous Nocturne.  And that's not counting all the Persona spinoffs, with more on the way.

Devil Survivor is the baby of the series... a big mean baby that barfs all over you.  It's set in the present day, so social media and communication plays a big role.  In the latest game, you summon demons with your phone (in the previous game, it was DS-lookalikes  ), buy them at auctions (D-Bay?), and watch video clips of your friends getting killed- before it happens.  The game's a bit stripped down since it's on a handheld, but it holds up pretty well.

[Naryoril]

Started Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2.  This game is brutal...

what do you mean by brutal? the difficulty?

i'v got it at home, but still finishing Persona 3 Portable first. I played through Devil Survivor 1 several times to get all endings.

Btw the Persona games are also set in the present.

[JNiles]

Yep, it's difficult.  There are more support options this time around, but the game is less predictable so it plays harder.

Since you've already played the first game and some Persona (which seems to be on the easy side), the differences should be clear.  You have to buy demons, whereas you get showered with them after every battle in Persona.  Having left and right flanking demons for every character should make the game easier... except it opens up more combos for the center character to get ganged up on. -_-  It's grid-based, so a lot of effort is expended just running to the target or innocent bystander.  You can battle as many times as you want, but the xp curve eventually slows to a trickle.

They added a compendium for the second game, but it's expensive... ALLYOYENS yip yip yap.

Oh yeah, the boss designer for the sequel did Angel design for Evangelion- there's a "what???" feeling every time a boss falls out of the sky.

I liked P3P a lot too- the female side has some of the funniest social link events.  Messed up the links like I always do, haven't finished my second playthrough.

edit: Persona's present now feels a bit dated compared to our present.  Heck, the focal point of communal interest in P4 was TV.

[chikorita157]

Yeah, I got really angry as shown here (Original Article Here)

I never heard about Phil Fish, but he is a big jerk that thinks that all Japanese Games are f***ing horrible... The sad fact is, he is very ignorant and hypocritical since it took him 5 years to make a 2D game. He has no right to say it, especially the same can be said about western games.

[blake307]

Yeah, I got really angry as shown here (Original Article Here)

I never heard about Phil Fish, but he is a big jerk that thinks that all Japanese Games are f***ing horrible... The sad fact is, he is very ignorant and hypocritical since it took him 5 years to make a 2D game. He has no right to say it, especially the same can be said about western games.

I know it's his own opinion but I thought it was really stupid the way he said it too. Because the way he kind of said it was that he thinks that every single Japanese game out there is terrible. While there may be some Japanese games out there that are pretty crappy, there is still a lot of good Japanese games out there still in my opinion. Examples: Yakuza Series, Disgaea series, Ninja Gaiden, Catherine, im@s (Duh!) Blazblue, Arcana Heart, etc.

Plus I can name quite a few Western games out there that are other crap as well. Examples: Duke Nukem Forever, Brink, etc. Although I never played these games, I can tell they are pretty crap.

On topic: I got the normal ending for MK2 earlier, but I am going to attempt to get the other endings later as well.

[chikorita157]

I know it's his own opinion but I thought it was really stupid the way he said it too. Because the way he kind of said it was that he thinks that every single Japanese game out there is terrible. While there may be some Japanese games out there that are pretty crappy, there is still a lot of good Japanese games out there still in my opinion. Examples: Yakuza Series, Disgaea series, Ninja Gaiden, Catherine, im@s (Duh!) Blazblue, Arcana Heart, etc.

Plus I can name quite a few Western games out there that are other crap as well. Examples: Duke Nukem Forever, Brink, etc. Although I never played these games, I can tell they are pretty crap.

He also assumed that Japanese must satisfy westerner's taste... No they don't because we aren't their audience. I have mentioned this back in my editorial I wrote last week with the culture difference with the statement that "Japanese Anime is made for a Japanese Audience." Therefore, using the argument that this game isn't westernized enough or doesn't contain enough western elements isn't valid. It's just like saying that western games sucks because they don't have cute anime style girls. It makes no sense.

Not only that, his statement is flawed that not everything is horrible. Sturgeon's Law always applies to everything no matter where the game is made and its subjective. The problem with Western Gaming in my opinion is that there is too many rehashes of FPS and mobile games don't provide any experience as it's too dumbed down. I can actually go on with this, but rather not since I'll burn my self out and be filled with negativity, which is not a good feeling.

Aside from that, I can't wait for Spring Break, so I can start playing some more games... and record the iM@S 2 Let's Play.

[satty]

Yeah, I got really angry as shown here (Original Article Here)

I never heard about Phil Fish, but he is a big jerk that thinks that all Japanese Games are f***ing horrible... The sad fact is, he is very ignorant and hypocritical since it took him 5 years to make a 2D game. He has no right to say it, especially the same can be said about western games.

Yeah, the comment is clearly not true, and all it does is makes him look like an ass.

As for Western gaming...the fact is is that it's business first, actual content later. If the majority of people want FPS rehashes, that's what the company's gonna make. And it's much easier for a company to make rehashes of a product that has been proven to sell rather than bet on an original IP that may not sell enough to cover the costs.

Course, players and buyers are at fault, too. Originality and having something new is something a lot of people scream about, and yet when it does come out, the support just isn't there.

Anyway, what have I've been playing? Mostly FPS's...*don't shoot me*

For starters, I've been replaying STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl with mods. Man, those Russian modders know how to make an already difficult game even harder...and to cram lots of stuff.

I've played Tribes: Ascend and I think it's a fun shooter, but free-to-play, with microtransactions, make me wary.

Got a Vita, I like it. Played Uncharted and Lumines. Might get Gravity Rush when that comes out.

Oh, and after a long while, I decided to finish all the games I haven't finished yet: Arkham City, Rune Factory Oceans, and Resonance of Fate. Not to mention finishing up my current playthrough in Im@s 2.

Going to grab Yakuza: Dead Souls soon.

[Naryoril]

i just took a look at my order history in my favourite gaming shop (newest on top):

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
The Last Story
Final Fantasy 13-2
Atelier Rorona
Atelier Totori
Mario Kart 7
Tales of the Abyss 3D
DoDonPachi Resurrecton
Valkyria Chronicles 2
Disgea DS
Ico & Shadow of the Colossus
Dead or Alive Dimensions
Star Fox 64 3D
Valkyria Chronicles
Catherine
Xenoblade Chronicles
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Dirt 3

hey, the uhmm... *counts* 19th last title was a western game, on 28th July 2011, and that's not counting games i bought somewhere else (such as Idolm@ster 2, the 3 Idolm@ster SP, Clannad, Kanon and Little Busters).
and i didn't even play it through, what i did with about 80% of the other titles, and half of the rest isn't played through because i didn't have the time yet

definitely, i think japanese games suck , doh

most western games don't interest me at all, 90% of them are FPS anyway (i know, exaggeration)

some people are just ignorant idiots

[Elixir]

Japanese games are almost always made for a Japanese audience and the fact that they're even translated is a privilege. I mean, it's not like they have to. Some even with bug fixes that were originally in their Japanese releases, yet fixed for localization. They're almost always poorly reviewed by western reviewers, yet companies are still gladly translating them. Some of the localized translations are really good, even though there's always going to be one dude out there nitpicking over single word differences, ignoring the fact that he wouldn't be able to understand the full sentence in Japanese to grasp the context. Despite all of this, they're still localized, and they're still very much playable.

I'm not saying that all Japanese material is automatically better, no. There's a plethora of Japanese material, currently untranslated, that just isn't worth translating as it's simply not good. Of course most of this logic is lost, since the people interested in Japanese material will praise anything inaccessible to them, as if it's automatically an untapped goldmine.

Why is it that whenever an actually decent indie game comes along, people begin to praise it like it's the best thing since the parting of the waters in the Bible? Like Aquaria, Limbo or Braid.

I also like how indie gamers and indie developers seem to be anti-mainstream and act advantageous over the larger teams, who focus more on putting effort into polycounts and shaddow effects than the actual gameplay itself. That's what nets you $60 USD currently, but these indie developers think that their lower priced game with an infinite amount of time invested within (because they're unemployed and have no life, duh) is automatically better by proxy. Like, are all indie gamers and developers unemployed 30 year olds, or poor as shit 14 year olds with massive egos? Seriously, I don't understand the kind of people that will gladly spend $60 USD on a shitty 5 hour western game that they won't remember in six months, but they won't spend the $40~$60 USD on a 2D game, or Japanese RPG which will obviously have more content, and be more value for money in the long run.

I just can't get over how hypocritical this whole thing is. What he said wasn't constructive criticism at all.