Summer Games Challenge 2015

[Exhuminator]

Moderately okay list Exhuminator. I'll accept it.

Am I pushing it with PS1 and Saturn games?

[Ack]

So far in Final Fantasy V I have made it past the library and am back in the fire town to see what became of Cid and his mini-me.

Bartz(who I have named Butz because I am childish) is currently working to master the Geomancer class, though he and Faris are working on the final level of Knight and level 4 of Mystic Knight, which I have been using to make them into a nasty pair of boss killers. As soon as Geomancer is done, I'll likely put Bartz back on track to finish Knight, though he'll be a fair clip behind Faris(who I may move into Mystic Knight full time for a while). Both Bartz and Faris are using the two-hand ability from the Knight class to up their damage output.

Lenna has been turned into my healer, but I do this by making sure her White Mage skill is up to snuff and then setting it as a secondary ability while she is a Monk, so she is fast, cheap to equip, deals damage, and can do a mass attack. Galuf is a thief, but I made him a Monk long enough to pick up the ability to fight barehanded, so he can do more damage. If you haven't figured it out yet, I like Monks. They were extremely overpowered in Final Fantasy Tactics, and they are doing pretty damn well here so far.

I can see why some folks into building up devastating character ability combinations absolutely love to break this game. I admit, part of me does enjoy seeing what nasty things I can do. It's a habit I got from FFT years ago. At the same time, the game feels like the weird transitory step between FFIV and FFVI. Graphics and character sprites aren't quite there, but it's obvious the direction they are heading in. FFV is the place between, where Square was really starting to understand the capabilities of the SNES but hadn't quite mastered it yet. It's an interesting evolutionary step between two games I enjoy, though so far I can't say FFV has done anything to really wow me or drive me away. Then again, I've played through this portion before. The only real attempt I ever made at FFV, I got to the second world before calling it quits. Let's see if I can push through it this time.

[dsheinem]

So, perhaps this is a sign I am feeling a bit better...

(the ongoing Alphabetical Challenge games include a date in the listings below)

Summer Challenge List:
1. Mega Max X
2. Ogre Battle (1993)
3. Plumbers Don't Wear Ties (1994)
4. Dino Crisis
5. Star Fox 64 (1997)
6. Um Jammer Lammy (1999)
7. Warioland 4 (2001)
8. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
9. Dungeons of Daggorath
10. Earthbound


Hoping to dig into some of these this week...

[Exhuminator]

FFV, I got to the second world before calling it quits.

Yes, that's where it started to fall apart for me. The final third of the game was incredibly boring. The pacing dissolved into a miasma of why I am even playing this? I honestly don't understand why people love this game so much. Unless it's just the job system. But better job systems exist in better RPGs... so yeah.

But I could always be absolutely wrong and you'll end up having a blast. Looking forward to seeing your ultimate conclusion.

[Ack]

Yeah, that is part of the reason why I opted to play this for a summer challenge. I'm hoping the combined push of fellow RPG fans and summer challenge folks will help to ensure I see this through. And by that point, I may be far enough along into the job system that it really does carry me through. Who knows?

[prfsnl_gmr]

Summer Challenge List:
1. Mega Max X
2. Ogre Battle (1993)
3. Plumbers Don't Wear Ties (1994)
4. Dino Crisis
5. Star Fox 64 (1997)
6. Um Jammer Lammy (1999)
7. Warioland 4 (2001)
8. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
9. Dungeons of Daggorath
10. Earthbound

Nice list. I have beaten Mega Man X, Star Fox 64, Umjammer Lammy, Wario Land 4, and Klonoa, and I can vouch for all of them. Earthbound is also on my list this summer, and if you let me know when you start it, I will play it at the same time. (Finally, I can't wait to read your thoughts on Plumbers Don't Wear Ties. As an adults-only FMV game that is often listed among the "worst games of all time," I think it is an excellent choice for your SGC 2015 list!)

[noiseredux]

@dsh: I'm also interested to hear your thoughts on Plumbers. I tried to watch a playthrough of it on YT once. Even that was painful.

I'm not really playing any of my summer games at the moment; I've been "distracted" by other pursuits instead. Some gaming-related, some not. I got really hyped for this year's challenge - maybe too hyped, as I made my list months in advance.

But as I "get older" I find that these scheduled gaming challenges don't always work out for me. I still love reading this thread though; perhaps next year I'll sit it out and just be a spectator. Who knows.

This is pretty much me every Summer haha. At least I acknowledged that going in this year. And that's why I chose shorter games.

PROGRESS REPORT:

The Adventures Of Willy Beamish - Played about 10 mins. Not too optimistic on this one. I'll probably come back to it after I've knocked out others.

Bloodrayne...

Bonk's Adventure - Played the Amiga version a bit. I like it. It's harder than I expected.

Call Of Duty - The best game I've started of this list. I finished the US campaign so far.

Diablo - Installed it.

Dragon Quest - Not well suited for the Shield Portable. I'm actually planning on getting a Shield Tablet in the near future, so I'll pick this up again at that point.

The Great Giana Sisters

King Of Fighters 2002...

Loom...

Outrun Coast 2 Coast - Played a bit of this. Seems great. I have no idea how to call it beaten though. There's many different modes, so?


At any rate, I'm also "distracted" right now. There's my Hearthstone addiction to tend to. And I'm excited to replay Mega Man X this month. And I need to play thru the tutorial of Iron Brigade still to get caught up for Thurs night w/ Ack & Fast. Plus I've started to notice my Steam wishlist is getting pretty beefy as far as new releases are concerned. And that Steam Summer Sale is just around the corner...

[Ack]

Iron Brigade should only take you half an hour. You only need to beat the first two missions.

Loom can be knocked out in a few hours. It's actually quite short. If Willy Beamish is throwing you off, I'd suggest switching over to this one. But keep your focus on Call of Duty!

[marurun]

I guess I should offer up a short list, then. I'll try to dovetail with some of my existing gaming plans.

Jade Empire
Final Fantasy III (Steam version)
Some console games I'll add later when I have time to go through my collection

And the unofficial first entry: Knights of the Old Republic II

It's true, I completed this game before committing to any summer challenges, but I missed this game when it first came out, and it's taken me two years with it in my Steam library to actually sit down and play it. I really enjoyed it with the exception of a few frustrations. The game world does feel a lot emptier than in the original, however the characters are all excellently written, and there are lots of neat little scenes that show inter-character conflict whenever you return to your ship. Not a good game to play if you haven't played the first. And one should go in not expecting it to be perfect. That said, none of the quests broke the way some of the quests broke in the original (Oh, you did these two required steps out of the correct order [even though no particular order is implied]? No quest for you!)

There's something refreshing about being a dual-wielding lightsaber tank than can just plow headlong through anything.

[alienjesus]

If you haven't figured it out yet, I like Monks. They were extremely overpowered in Final Fantasy Tactics, and they are doing pretty damn well here so far.

My advice is to have any people you want to make physical attackers master monk ASAP. Monks are one of the worst classes by the end of the game because weapons become powerful faster than the monks barehand attacks do. However, monks give massive attack and hp bonuses to a freelancer at the end of the game, so they're still worth using whilst they're good.

Some of the upcoming jobs are amongst the best in the game in my opinion, especially if you want to take on optional bosses. Interesting that you've mostly avoided mages on your team so far though - all the magic classes are worth using in this game.