Topic: What (Non-PS4) game are you playing??

I looked everywhere @Thrillho for a copy of Tombi/Tomba for years but never found one

It's £120 just for a used copy of that off of amazon! The sequel is £200! Luckily you can get those on the PS3 as PS1 classics

Same with Klonoa... £150 for a physical copy, £4 digital

Luckily I got the PS2 game Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil for £10 a few years back

... I also totally didn't cry at either of them... especially not the first one 😂

I'll probably hang on to what's left of my PS1 library, but physically collecting games for that system is NOT worthwhile for cost-conscious gamers.

Nintendo and Sony need to get their act together and offer universal VC programs featuring their best games so I can just play everything digitally. PS3 and Wii were both GREAT starting points on this front, and then both companies just left the idea behind going forward (Wii U's VC was less robust than the Wii's, and the VC is completely absent on Switch; PS1/PS2 Classics seemed to disappear with the PS3, aside from some limited PS1 compatibility with the Vita).

Anyway, I've been obsessively playing SMT: DDS the last couple of days. I've probably logged 10+ hours since Wednesday. I'm basically at the end game now, but there are a lot of optional bosses that seem to unlock stuff in the sequel, so I'm combing through the game to beat them before finishing up the game proper. I am NOT playing through the game again to fight some broken NG+ superboss, though.

I did mention the bonus bosses give stuff before along with other things @Ralizah . I'll mention them below. I'll spoiler tag them still even though I'll remove any spoilery info in case ya don't wanna know

These ones are ever so slightly spoilery

As for me I'm at the Dragonfly Forest in Jade Cocoon... Just met Kikinak and about to fight that silly birdman. Got a Air and Water divine beast, Fire and Earth divine beast & one that's all four elements

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Of all the...

So, I made the regrettable mistake of saving in the same save slot for the last ten hours or so of playtime as I've completed various side content (Beezlebub; King Frost; Orochi; etc.) and grinded to fill various mantras. Well, literally AS I WAS SAVING tonight, the power went out for an hour or two. The exact few seconds I decided to save my file. So my save corrupted.

Ahahaha. hahahaha.
hahaha.
haha.

ha.

So, I'm just going to gun it to the end of the game before I break my controller.

I know that pain all too well @Ralizah.

My PS3 got corrupted and it had to wipe the entire hard drive.... among all the other things I lost my original American PSN account with Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and The Legend Of Dragoon cus I forgot the password for it. They aren't on the UK store at all

It's why I always make two saves with ANY game and if I can't use two save slots I'll make a copy onto another memory card or onto a usb stick.... and I now have a little notepad for all my passwords as well.

Did you manage to fight the dragon bonus boss Huang Long before it corrupted? And how'd you find ol' seven move Orochi?

Meanwhile in Jade Cocoon I just finished up the Spider Forest and everythings really gone to pot! Off to the moth forest to find the Nagi and become the Chosen One Of Light!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy That sucks. You can't just reset the password for your American account?

The worst save data flub I ever had was when one of my PS1 memory cards just... died... and took a 47 hour save file of FF7 along with it. I couldn't even look at the console for months.

Unfortunately not (RE: Huang Long). Orochi was pretty easy, though, once you learn his pattern. He uses up his MP quickly, so if you keep null mute up on your character, he can't do that MP sapping thing he would otherwise, and he also can't remove debuffs if you decide to Debilitate him over and over. Obviously that makes his accuracy absolute crap, meaning the physical skills he's forced to use after that don't hit half the time. It's pretty fun just backing him into a corner with skills like that.

On the plus side, even having lost hours and hours of progress like that, I'm still pretty overleveled and am carrying three million macca in my wallet. Is there any benefit to having a lot of macca when you end the game and go to DDS2, or would spending it on mantras be better?

I made the account in haste as I never expected I'd actually get anything important for it @Ralizah (I think I made it for a demo or something) so I used a throwaway email account that I also forgot the password for. So no It's lost to the ages sadly

I've made a new american account since that I made sure I wrote down everything for it so this doesn't happen again... I'll get them back someday

If you have at least a million Macca (I think?) on you at the end of the game when you play DDS 2 you get $20,000 to start with rather then $10,000 when Serph sells his tag ring.

Also there's bonus stats for the party depending on how many mantras you master for them. +5 for everything is the max... I'm not sure how exactly it's calculated though

Still annoying as heck Orochi gets 7 turns though. Abad statting round can seriously mess ypu up, especially if you weren't prepared.

There's something like that you can do to the Demi Fiend or rather his Pixie.

It's called the Redstar strategy if I remember right and you have to get through the Super bosses accompanying demons til you get to Pixie and CuChulainn (I think?)

You keep casting Debilitate and eventually she runs out of mp using Dekunda... and rather then use Recarmdra which either uses 1hp or sp she'll spend every turn trying to use Dekunda even though she's got not enough Mp.

If the Demi Fiend manages to get a crit though whilst you're trying to waste her mp (Which is ridiculously likely as he crits like crazy even with Null Crit on) then she get's a second move and'll probably use it and negate everything you did

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Email accounts can also be recovered with enough effort (I've had to daisy-chain a few sets of missing password requests myself over the years to gain access to stuff), but it sounds like you've moved on.

Alright, I'll be sure to keep at least a million on me. In the meanwhile, right before the final boss, I'll use the 30 noises or so I have to make my MC even more hilariously overpowered!

It's nice to know there's a way to manage the hilarious OP superboss, but I still can't comprehend fighting him.

Oh, btw, considering our conversation recently, this is a bizarre coincidence:

https://nintendoeverything.com/monster-rancher-port-heading-t...

Not sure I want it on Switch, though. The disc swapping feature might have been a silly gimmick, but it was really, really cool!

Ha ha... I uhhhhhh found a video in which someone managed to beat the Demi Fiend at lvl 20...

The fight is over an hour and a half long @Ralizah ! :')

I also found this picture and it was SO cute

Gonna attempt the super boss in DDS2? Ya only have to play the game on the hard mode to fight them!

If you had to scan discs for the monsters in Monster Rancher... wouldn't be more of a hassle having to reprogram that feature to work for switch carts or something rather then just porting it to the PS4?

Maybe, but look at some of those maxed out stats! That's nowhere close to a normal level 20 character.

You know, this picture would actually fit well with the vaguely 'love and friendship'-esque vibe of SMT IV: Apocalypse.

Only if it's an Invisible Demons mode!

Well, when they ported the series to NDS, they changed it up so that you scrawled different patterns on the touchscreen to make different monsters, so they'll likely replicate that here.

...

Yeah, they really should have just remastered Monster Rancher 2 for PS4 and made it compatible with DVDs and Blu-Rays.

The description of the vid seems to go into detail and apparently character level has a bunch of hidden stats attached to it @Ralizah.

So whilst they may have 99 in all stats.... They're still taking way more damage then if they were lvl 99 as well. Goes to show how OP the super boss is if ya can't be a madman like some people are and do a Lvl 1 run of it!

Seeing as I havent played SMT IV or the sequel I'm not quite sure what you mean there to be honest... I know there's a DLC fight with the previous SMT protagonists vs Stephen but I assume you mean it's more of a general theme the game has rather then pertaining to the Demi Fiend!

... I'm never gonna hear the end of that am I?

... So if this Monster Rancher port doesn't come to ps4... I'm borrowing your copy of 2 now you've gotten me interested yeah?

And I'm nearly done with Jade Cocoon. At the Dark Spider Forest (or Spider Forest of the Netherworld) and facing off against the various Earth Boss encounters

Shame you never get to fight a water one... I always wondered what doofy haircut it would have or how ridiculously long it's nose would be 😂

Well... Seeing as no-one else has posted in the topic it's my first double post... Sorry guys!

Having completed Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu I'm now playing the sequel, aptly named Jade Cocoon 2

...It's honestly quite jarring due to the very different (and more stategic) battle system, the tone and writing.

Also our new protagonist Kahu is voiced rather then Levant and his silentness in the prevous game

He's a wide eyed kid that heads to the temple (I assume the one in the moth forest from Jade Cocoon) and wants to be a cocoon master. Except it's been like hundreds of years and no one knows what that is anymore barring two people.

Kikinak (...With a not so hot new voice) and Levant

Yes... THAT Levant

He's immortal now thanks to the events of the first game but apparently aged to his 30's before the immortality decided to stop aging him?

Anyway Levant tells you there are no cocoon masters anymore... But Beast Hunters! Which is like a Super Hyper Cocoon Master says one of the npc's!

Just got my first Divine Beast (of the Mau line)

Well it's always given to you... But you get your second quite quickly afterwards! Being able to choose from either an Earth, Water, or Air beast.

I chose the Water one Slimich (Of the Slimy line)

Off to finish the rest of the tutorial... And kick start the plot proper!

I've been playing Persona 4 (Base version, not Golden) for the first time since high school. Been working on it for a couple months now, and currently just got Naoto as a party member. Gotta say, while I'm still enjoying the game, there are a few things I don't really like about it.

-Arcana Chance is so stupid. In Persona 3, you could play a similar card game to either get a weapon, extra EXP, a heal, extra money, or a persona. In 4, the card game is still around, only now you can either get a persona, a penalty in which you get denied any EXP and money from the battle, or neither. But after the card thing, Arcana Chance might pop up, which either gives a good or negative effect depending on the arcana (e.g. Judgement either restores or halves your SP). Considering how difficult P3 was if you didn't know what you were doing, extra rewards were appreciated after battles. While 4 is a bit easier, it can still punish you hard, and potentially getting penalized after a first is something I don't appreciate. Whenever it comes up, I just decline.

-Having to find a place to check the weather is a minor nag, but a weird choice considering you could previously see the whole calendar from the pause screen. It kinda makes sense, but it also means the deadlines are harder to tell until the week of.

-For a game about friendship, the main cast can be pretty dickish to each other. Yosuke used to be a favorite of mine, but depending on how he's written for the scene, he's either sympathetic, grounded, and competent, or a pervy loser. Sometimes he might be a sympathetic loser. He has moments where he's a nice character, like looking after Teddie and his general behavior towards the hero, but man, it is creepy as all hell that he bought bikinis for Yukiko and Chie without their consent, somehow knowing they'd fit them, and needing Kanji about his issues (No wonder Kanji's so insecure) doesn't help his look either. Chie I didn't really like to begin with, with her overreaction to Yosuke damaging her DVD, presumably by accident, mooching off him afterwards, and sticking him with the bill for Teddie's shopping, which made me swear off her. Teddie starts alright, but after a while his own perviness gets grating quick. Everyone else I'm ok with, unless there's a moment I forgot that would ruin their characters. I know that's only 3 out of 8, but with all the talk of how everybody's friends and seeing the above is pretty jarring, especially compared to the casts of 3 & 5. They had their moments too (The hot springs in 3, Ryuji's constant mistreatment in 5), but you could also see them grow as characters and bond, talk about themselves, and when everybody's friends in the ending, it feels natural. Aside from Chie and Yukiko's established friendship, I haven't gotten anything on that level so far with the party. I'm sure I'm judging too early, and probably forgetting something (it's been almost a decade since my last playthrough), but it's been jarring so far.

Just to remind everybody I do like this game, this is what I like about it-

-The battles are still enjoyable, yet challenging. While P3's battles were balanced and more enjoyable than given credit for, you can't beat controlling the whole party.

-While they still have randomly generated floors (barring a few), having differently themed dungeons is far better than P3's Tartarus. Those few floors that aren't randomized do keep them interesting enough. The result is that compared to 3, the game feels less grindy to me. The fatigue feature from 3 was also removed, meaning your dungeon crawling is thankfully only limited by your SP limits.

-The soundtrack. Dear lord it hasn't gotten old. The opening theme is perfect to introduce the game, and it helps sell the more homey feel of Inaba. This is essentially the soundtrack of catchiness incarnate. And of course, "I'll Face Myself" is still a great boss track.

-The tone in general is refreshing for a Persona game. If you play this after 3 or 5, you might think you popped the wrong game in. The other games were undoubtedly heavy, and while there's still heavy moments, this game is much lighter than the others.

-Even though I already know the answers, the story does a great job at selling a mystery surrounding Inaba's murders and the killer responsible. I'm a sucker for a good mystery, and at times it had me briefly forget the killer's identity.

All in all, while it ain't quite as great as I remember, it's still been a good time playing through this again.

@KratosMD You and apparently most of Japan. Isn't that the franchise that suddenly, overnight, became almost as big as Pokémon back in 2014?

After ten hours, I feel like I'm ready to talk about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the legendary BioWare RPG which I'm playing (on PC) for the first time ever.

I'm torn. For everything I love about it, there's something that makes me recoil slightly. Take the premise, for example; set thousands of years before the events of regular Star Wars, you're caught up in a war between a vast Sith Army and a dwindling Jedi Order. Sounds pretty great, right? Except that there's both too much distance and too much familiarity, all at once. It feels a bit like somebody's fan fiction project, with everything just being a devolved analogue for what's to come.

Some of it works. I've got an astromech droid on my squad who's basically a bigger, chunkier Artoo-Detoo and he's cool, but he's living aboard my ship which is essentially the Millennium Falcon with an orange paint job. As we used this vessel to escape the opening planet, I grunted something along the lines of "let's just hope there isn't a turret section where I have to shoot down proto-TIEs" seconds before I was shoved into a turret section where I had to shoot down proto-TIEs. Which all swarmed from a wedge-shaped capital ship manned by soldiers in shiny armour. Stop me if you've heard this one.

But hey, I realise I'm bringing a vast weight of opinion about a much larger franchise to bear on this single game, so I'll leave those gripes there. Unfortunately, having played the BioWare back-catalogue in reverse, the actual "game" part of the game comes with its own share of problems for me, too. This is the most RPG-esque RPG I've ever played. It pauses before combat, can be controlled entirely by clicking on things, the protagonist is mute and it dumps a whole bunch of overly-technical nonsense about the background mechanics "rolling virtual d20 dice to decide combat success" or something... like, shut up and give me my lightsaber, gosh darn it! By this point in Mass Effect 3, I'd shot a dozen Reapers!

It also shows its age in other ways. Many of the characters are two-dimensional, with story arcs I can see coming a mile off (probably because they would be repackaged later on as Normandy SR-2 crewmembers, or citizens of Thedas; the same can be said for a lot of the world-building as well, with the first planet having an "undercity" ravaged by a plague and everything). As things have progressed, the plot seems contrived to make my main character (a male) share a connection with the primary female protagonist, which leads to an abundance of flirty banter between them. To avoid triggering it, I basically have to be a constant jerk and pick the arrogant, dismissive Dark Side dialogue options. This makes me feel like I'm somehow "playing it wrong" by not wanting to pursue a straight (and, as I understand it, the only) romance. I wasn't planning on being rude to everybody but, ironically in a BioWare game, I feel I have no choice if I'm to put any kind of personal stamp on the proceedings.

So I'm becoming a Sith Lord. My skin has started to turn pale, my eyes are fading to yellow and my morality tracker has tanked into the red. I've never played a choice-based game as purely evil before, but my lack of a connection to the narrative has oddly afforded me the freedom to care less, whereas the periodic Star Wars sound effects or name-drops simply reinforce the fact that, in Star Wars, it's the villains who have all the coolest stuff anyway.

Just as I thought that to myself earlier, I unlocked Force Lightning.

At least I've found a way to make it a unique experience for me, I guess... but I've got to admit, I'm still waiting for the moment that'll help me to understand why everybody talks about this game in hushed whispers of saintly reverence. Right now, it's on the average side of being average-to-good for me. With any luck, that'll change the more people I zap with my fingertips.

@RogerRoger I loved reading your KotOR impressions. I’ve never played the game, but it’s interesting to hear of the game’s early hours though the eyes of another first-timer. I hope the game settles into something even remotely approaching its vaunted reputation.

@Th3solution Belated thanks; and here I was, thinking I was the only Star Wars fan who'd never played it. Nice to know I'm not alone! It's quite telling that, when a disc for another game arrived in the post over the weekend, I immediately installed and played it for an evening. I'll try getting back to KotOR later on and hopefully it'll grab me.

@KratosMD I remember hearing truckloads about Yo-Kai Watch around that time, yeah, and people predicting it becoming everybody's next obsession, but it was you mentioning it that made me realise that it'd been years since I'd heard its name. I'm glad that the games are still going strong, even if the rest of the franchise hasn't quite reached the market saturation levels people had hoped; it's always good to have another option out there. Will you be getting the third-person Switch game?

@KratosMD That's one thing I didn't like about the only Pokémon game I've ever played, Pokémon SoulSilver. The grindy nature of the "story" (what little story there is) dragged what should've been a nice ten-hour blast out into a forty-hour time-waster. As charming as I found it, without structure the aimless wandering and levelling up could quickly become a real drag between Gyms, which were soft-locked behind XP level requirements for a chance at victory.

So I actually might prefer an experience in which you can complete the story without having to collect everything, go everywhere and upgrade every statistic to its maximum threshold.

@KratosMD That sounds much better. I got so frustrated when I reached a Gym, having spent all of my time upgrading a few favourite Pokémon, only to discover that I didn't have a very effective water-type Pokémon and that it was the key to victory... back out I went, ten hours of grinding later, etc. and it just became less and less fun with each passing Gym. For all of my Pokémon to be linked to my core XP not only sounds fantastic, it just sounds more logical to me.

But you're right, I guess I have limited experience with such RPGs and so perhaps brought other games' baggage with me, expecting to be able to do certain things and whatnot. These kinds of games sound like exercises in balance, whereas I thought they were essentially glorified Tamagotchi fighters.

While I was waiting on my copy of Astral Chain to arrive I caved & bought the Smash "Fighter's Pass". Got me back into spirit hunting & classic mode, so that's good.

Then of course Astral Chain, which has been good so far. I actually really like that there's chances to explore the levels for secrets at times, rather than nothing but wall to wall action.