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MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by MrPopo Sat Apr 29, 2017 2:51 am

1. Pokémon Moon - 3DS
2. Tony Hawk's Underground - GCN
3. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising - PC
4. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution - PC
5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - PSP
6. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit - PC
7. Star Wars Republic Commando - PC
8. X-Wing: B-Wing - PC
9. Blazing Lazers - TG-16
10. Tales of Xillia 2 - PS3
11. Shining Force CD: Shining Force Gaiden - Sega CD
12. MUSHA - Genesis
13. Sonic CD - Sega CD
14. Final Fantasy Legend III - GB
15. Tales of Zestiria - PS3
16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch
17. Horizon Zero Dawn - PS4
18. Tales of Berseria - PS4
19. Battlefield 1 - PC
20. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - PC
21. Mass Effect Andromeda - PC
22. Starflight 2 - PC
23. Armored Hunter Gunhound EX - PC
24. Space Megaforce - SNES
25. Persona 5 - PS4
26. Torment: Tides of Numenera - PC

Torment is the second game to come from inXile going the crowdfunding route, and so far they're batting two for two. This campaign launched while Wasteland 2 was still under development, with the justification that due to how game development pipelines work it made sense to keep the initial designers busy working on the next game. And based on the results it's clear that they have a very good understanding of how to properly budget time. I'm going to say that inXile is a company to trust; if you see them crowdfund another game (right now Bard's Tale 4 and Wasteland 2 are in development) then you have a very good expectation of getting what is being pitched (so feel free to back to get shinies or go with Fig's investment option).

As the name implies, Torment was billed by the devs as a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment. Now, it's not a sequel both because the original game's story was utterly completed in that game and them not having access to the AD&D license. But I think that worked out for them, as they hopped aboard Monte Cook's Numenera setting, which was being developed at around the same time they started concepting this game. It ended up being a fantastic fit from a worldbuilding perspective as well as a mechanical systems perspective.

Numenera is set in the Ninth World; Earth one billion years in the future. It gains that appellation from the belief that eight civilizations have risen and fallen prior to the current setting, and now humanity is dealing with their detritus. The setting runs entirely on "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", so you get this utter hodgepodge of fantasy and sci fi tropes based on whatever best suits what your GM is trying to do. The general level is that standard fantasy middle ages setting, but there's all these little touches that make it alien, like people mixing hover cars with drawn carts and people setting things on fire by connecting to the cloud of nanobots suffusing the atmosphere to induce heat at the targeted location. Many things are repurposed; a power pack becomes a grenade. In many ways it ends up being an even weirder setting than Planescape was.

In terms of game systems Numenera is heavily emphasized around being able to tell a good story with the players along for the ride. Rather than tables of stats and a variety of rolls influenced by wargaming, Numenera takes a broad strokes approach. If you want to set up a quick encounter you can have the players attacked by a beast that is difficulty 1-10. Your target number is equal to difficulty * 3, and the players perform all rolls. So if you're attacking a difficulty 3 monster you need to roll 9 on a d20 to hit it. If that monster attacks you back you need to roll 9 on a d20 to dodge. The GM can intrude to screw with players, but in order to do so he needs to give out experience as compensation. Difficulty numbers can be adjusted up or down based on player skills and circumstances; if you're fighting in the rain on a cliff's edge maybe tasks are one step more difficult, while if you're trained in melee attacks you can hit things as if they were one step less difficult. And if PCs really want to make sure they succeed at something they can apply effort, which involves spending the appropriate one of three resources to reduce the difficulty by a step or two. And it's this last one that gets most heavily utilized in Torment.

Now, Torment does make some changes to the base system of the game in order to fit the fact that this is a computer game, rather than an organic experience overseen by a GM. The biggest change is that you have a health bar. In tabletop Torment you have three stat pools: might, speed, and intellect. These serve as both fuel for applying effort AND your health. So if you get hit with a sword you lose might, while taking a psychic attack reduces your intellect. If a pool empties you take major damage and future hits of that type are shunted to one of the other pools. Emptying all three kills you. In a GM situation the GM can adjust the pace and difficulty of encounters so as to avoid killing off players; the computer is not as kind. So now you have a separate health bar. Your stat pools are still used for applying effort, and you will do that a lot. The other change related to this is you no longer have a recovery roll to heal up; instead you have to rely on consumables and inns. It's the tradeoff you get by having a real health bar.

So, on to the actual game itself. Like P:T, Torment is extremely story focused, and you can go large swathes of the game without fighting anything. There's a lot of content that ends up just being world building, and that will give you some experience when you engage in it. This might be listening to the story of an extradimensional being who got trapped in this world and his tribulations trying to adjust to a place with only three spatial dimensions. There's also a lot of sidequests; none of them are too long and they all are worth doing, either for the experience or for finding out more of the world. The dialog trees are deep and can frequently be influenced by your skills and can require effort to get through. Some can be repeated, but many are closed. I'd encourage you to live with your choices; the game has a lot of good scripting that keeps you from being blocked, and all of it influences your general disposition.

The player character is the latest castoff body of a being known as the Changing God. The God has achieved functional immortality by constantly transferring consciousness to new bodies; the bodies left behind develop their own consciousness and agency. Your initial goal is to figure out what happened to you and find your place in the world; doing this opens up the broader story of the game. Along the way you can pick up several companions with interesting stories to tell. Several have personal quests; possibly all, though I didn't find a quest for one or two of them. Many of the major quests end up having consequences detailed after the game is finished, like was used before in the old Fallout games.

I mentioned that combat is heavily deemphasized. I don't think you can go full pacifist, but you can talk your way out of a ton of it. There's also a few times where you go into the combat interface without actually being in combat; this is used for time limited events and gives them a bit of urgency. Combat is a pure turn-based affair where you can do one movement and take one action per turn (where an action can include moving a second time). Compared to P:T the combat is much easier, so it doesn't feel like a failure if you get sucked into some. It's not super deep, but there's enough going on that you have to pay attention during combat and it never feels like a slog.

I don't want to get too deep into the rest of the story because spoilers. I will say that I found it very interesting and I spent a lot of time answering the ways I felt, rather than trying to gain a particular game advantage as happens in many other RPGs. There's a lot of times where there isn't a right answer, just a decision. You better be prepared to read, however. This is definitely more of a novel with light gameplay elements. But it's a highly enjoyable novel and the gameplay all works just fine.
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Sarge
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Sarge Sat Apr 29, 2017 2:56 pm

Xeo, you've got me wanting to play through that again. And I do use Haggar.
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Xeogred Sat Apr 29, 2017 4:37 pm

Sarge wrote:Xeo, you've got me wanting to play through that again. And I do use Haggar.

Alright dude... since you've showed us your Contra skills, you should record yourself beating this with Haggar! haha

I love how they had most of his classic moves in there, powerbomb and all.

I wish there was more Mighty Final Fight's!
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Sarge
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Sarge Sat Apr 29, 2017 7:59 pm

I reckon I can oblige. Not the cleanest run, but no continues. Not sure I've done that before. I tend to take a few licks because I'm going for the high EXP values of the piledriver. You can see me change a bit of my strategy at times, though, when I just want to stay alive. The little quick boogers are really, really annoying.

I also had a miserable first bonus stage until I remembered the trick with the bouncing barrels. That led to a much better second bonus stage, although not a perfect run. I can occasionally get those, but it's a LOT harder with Haggar.
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Xeogred Sat Apr 29, 2017 9:21 pm

Sarge wrote:I reckon I can oblige. Not the cleanest run, but no continues. Not sure I've done that before. I tend to take a few licks because I'm going for the high EXP values of the piledriver. You can see me change a bit of my strategy at times, though, when I just want to stay alive. The little quick boogers are really, really annoying.

I also had a miserable first bonus stage until I remembered the trick with the bouncing barrels. That led to a much better second bonus stage, although not a perfect run. I can occasionally get those, but it's a LOT harder with Haggar.

You've played this a lot. :lol:

That was awesome. I noticed the special moves with Guy, is it just a Hadoken for everyone? I'm assuming that's Haggar's scary looking closeline grab. Do the grab finishes work that way for everyone with the exp? You leveled up insanely fast.

Got sandwiched in level 3.

I would spam the enemies when I got two grounded together, seems like you were still going for the grabs haha. The spikey hair guys were the toughest, the knife throwers and chicks were always a threat with another enemy too. The level 3 boss was weirdly super easy for me on level 3, but then really annoying on level 5. Final boss definitely looked harder with Haggar haha.

Level 4 was my first game over as Guy and when I tried out Haggar. Think I got another game over on the elevator. That part is way easier with Guy.
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Sarge Sat Apr 29, 2017 9:53 pm

Xeogred wrote:You've played this a lot. :lol:

That was awesome. I noticed the special moves with Guy, is it just a Hadoken for everyone? I'm assuming that's Haggar's scary looking closeline grab. Do the grab finishes work that way for everyone with the exp? You leveled up insanely fast.

Got sandwiched in level 3.

I would spam the enemies when I got two grounded together, seems like you were still going for the grabs haha. The spikey hair guys were the toughest, the knife throwers and chicks were always a threat with another enemy too. The level 3 boss was weirdly super easy for me on level 3, but then really annoying on level 5. Final boss definitely looked harder with Haggar haha.

Level 4 was my first game over as Guy and when I tried out Haggar. Think I got another game over on the elevator. That part is way easier with Guy.

So yeah, that clothesline grab is his move. It kicks in at Level 4. The grab finishes are very good for EXP, but I think it has to be the knee move finishers, not the throws, with Cody and Guy. Gives like 6 points. Haggar's piledriver gives the most in the game, at 8 points a pop. It actually takes him more points to max out, though, but if you use the piledriver a ton, it makes up for it.

The other dirty little secret is that Haggar starts at Level 3. And you can actually abuse this early on by choosing Haggar, and then continuing with one of the faster guys. They'll keep those levels. I do that sometimes, and it's a lot of fun playing with a fully-powered Guy or Cody. That distance move with Cody, in particular, is awesome, and it happens to give 6 points per kill. :)

Spacing on the final boss is definitely tricky with Haggar. It's hard to get close without him running off. You can whack him with that butt stomp, but I tend to go for the combos.

And yes, I might have played this game a fair amount. I've had it for years, picked it up in a flea market years and years ago for what amounted to $3.33. :D (I wish I'd had more money at that time, but I was out of school and unemployed at that point.)
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by MrPopo Sun Apr 30, 2017 4:35 pm

1. Pokémon Moon - 3DS
2. Tony Hawk's Underground - GCN
3. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising - PC
4. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution - PC
5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - PSP
6. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit - PC
7. Star Wars Republic Commando - PC
8. X-Wing: B-Wing - PC
9. Blazing Lazers - TG-16
10. Tales of Xillia 2 - PS3
11. Shining Force CD: Shining Force Gaiden - Sega CD
12. MUSHA - Genesis
13. Sonic CD - Sega CD
14. Final Fantasy Legend III - GB
15. Tales of Zestiria - PS3
16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch
17. Horizon Zero Dawn - PS4
18. Tales of Berseria - PS4
19. Battlefield 1 - PC
20. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - PC
21. Mass Effect Andromeda - PC
22. Starflight 2 - PC
23. Armored Hunter Gunhound EX - PC
24. Space Megaforce - SNES
25. Persona 5 - PS4
26. Torment: Tides of Numenera - PC
27. Cosmic Star Heroine - PC

From the makers of Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World comes another successful Kickstarter game that's another RPG throwback with some of Zeboyd's trademark mechanics of not just being a complete rehash of old mechanics.

While BoD and CStW were rooted in the 8-bit era of design, CSW graduates to the 16-bit era, and takes some heavy influences from Phantasy Star with a bit of Chrono Trigger and FFX in parts of the combat. The Phantasy Star influence is most evident; you've got a similar style of sci fi setting complete with planet hopping, various alien races, and a PLOT SPOILER REDACTED. Graphically it takes a bit more from Chrono Trigger's overall fidelity; this looks much nicer than PSIV and is almost on par with CT.

Combat is a fairly unique and highly tactical system. First, the parts taken from previous games; turn order involves a ticker on the side of when people's turns come up, based on speed and one ability giving you an extra turn in the future. This is very clearly coming from how FFX did it. Combat is a seamless transition from the map and your fixed positioning does matter thanks to CT-style aoe abilities on both sides. There's not as many of them as CT and unfortunately the smallest aoe almost never hits more than one target. CT did a better job of having good enemy placements in encounters. The other thing that comes from CT is that your main character midway through the game gets the ability to team up with party members for a special move usable once per combat; this does not require the other person's turn but does count as a Burst skill (more on that later). These ended up being a mixed bag, with some being insanely useful and others not being worth using.

The new stuff is where things get super interesting. Your characters get seven skill slots plus a defend slot to comprise their combat abilities. With a few exceptions the skill slots are single use, with the defend ability refilling your slots. This means you need to be thinking about how your abilities flow from one to the next, as using your best ability followed by defend every other turn is definitely not going to be the way to succeed. Part of this flow also comes from the Boost system. At the start of your turn you gain a box in your Boost gauge; when it fills up your next action will have increased power and your Boost will be reset to zero. So you ideally want your highest power stuff available for these moments. A small wrinkle is that every character has two lengths for this gauge; the first is the initial length and the second is for every other time it needs to be filled.

In addition to the equipped abilities mentioned earlier, there are two other sources of battle actions. The first is items, which are single use and shared across the party, but they regenerate between fights (along with your health). You only have a limited number of slots, so you can't just spam potions to win (seeing as there is only one potion and one elixir). The other source is your equipped shield (armor) comes with one or more programs, which are single use and limited to the character holding the shield. Many of these end up letting you "subclass" with abilities another character has, while others are completely unique. Higher tier abilities require your Hacktitude stat to be high enough, which will affect where you decide to equip things.

A returning mechanic from the previous Zeboyd games is the Style stat, which goes up as you use abilities and increases your power as it increases. Some abilities might be high damage but don't give you any Style, while other weaker abilities might give you a bunch. You also have Burst abilities which use up all your Style, with some having a damage increase based on your Style. Enemies also gain Style, but unlike the player they have no cap. Thus, like previous games, the emphasis is on finishing battles efficiently, as eventually enemies will overpower you with their constant attack increases.

The main downside to this is that the last several bosses were less interesting than they might otherwise have been. These bosses were much more of a marathon, and it came at the expense of having more interesting attacks (as the player probably doesn't have a good way to handle them thanks to the skill system). Compare with the Neo Exdeath fight in FFV; he consists of four parts that are all doing something different. One part tosses out spells, one part tosses out heavy physical attacks, one part counts down to a massive magic attack, and one part counts down to hitting you with a ton of status spells. By contrast, the final boss of CSH consisted of just doing damage to single party members twice while you try and get his HP down before he finishes counting down to wiping you. The inherent damage race in the mechanics means they can't force you to spend more time dealing with other effects.

Storywise it doesn't rise to the heights of some of the better 16-bit RPGs. A noticeable difference from previous games is that this game is not a parody of the genre; it plays things straight. There are some references to other games (I saw an Earthbound and an RE2 reference), but these are more subtle nods rather than something more blatant screaming "I am a reference!" Personally I think the game might have been served better sticking with parody, maybe hitting up the ridiculousness of some tropes in sci fi.

Still, it's a really solid RPG and the fights require a great amount of engagement if you want to do well in them. This is definitely in the recommended pile.
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Xeogred
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Xeogred Sun Apr 30, 2017 5:13 pm

I wasn't very interested in their first games, but that one definitely looks awesome. Frankly looks more interesting than say, I Am Setsuna and whatnot to me as well. Probably my sci-fi bias. It's amusing both get a lot of CT comparisons though.
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by dsheinem Sun Apr 30, 2017 7:30 pm

Games Beaten 2017
Inside - PS4
Street Fighter V - PS4
TIMEframe - PC
Rituals - PC
Mother Russia Bleeds - PC
Horizon: Zero Dawn - PS4
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch
Here They Lie - PSVR
Dexed - PSVR
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - PSVR
Last Voyage - iOS
Ghost Blade HD - PS4
What Happened to Edith Finch - PS4
Fast RMX - Switch *new*
Puyo Puyo Tetris - Switch *new*

Total: 15


Previously: 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

Like Fast, I beat Fast RMX on the easy setting. The game feels less full-featured than Wipeout or F-Zero, and I'd concur that it is a nice in-between approach to the genre. I was impressed by the graphics and speed in it initially, but after seeing the visuals in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and playing that a bit, to be honest if feels a little underwhelming. I can see pissing around with it a little more going forward since it sits on the Switch permanently, but I am hoping that Redout is the better title.

Puyo Puyo Tetris' campaign offers a pretty reasonable level of difficulty to clear all the missions, and a number of "star ratings" to shoot for in subsequent playthroughs. I skipped the "story" as much as possible, but that's really not much of a knock against a game with a ton of content that I expect to keep coming back to over and again. This is really a wonderful puzzle game - I can't imagine what else I'd expect from this match up beyond what's here.
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Segata Sun Apr 30, 2017 11:18 pm

Last Duel
Captain Commando
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