Random Gaming Thoughts (Read OP Before Posting)

[Thief]

I've decided to go for the ultimate gaming challenge... try to get all S ranks in Mischief Makers. When I was a kid I couldn't even get one -- even now I just spent an hour on getting the S rank for the second level... the second level! I even know speed tricks like boost grabbing and whatever. Should be fun and very rewarding once I get them all.

[Henry Spencer]

Good luck getting the S rank on the second Lunar boss battle.

[AnimeGamer183]

phpBB [video]

What do you guys think of this Phantasy Star Nova trailer? Its for Vita and developed by Tri-Ace. I dont think it looks too bad for a Vita game, but something about the visual style seems off. I am still interested in it though, what do you think the chances are of it coming west?

[OL]

It's only just occurred to me, but I just noticed that I've actually beaten more main-series Tales games than I have main-series Final Fantasy games.

Final Fantasy, I've only beaten:
FFVII
FFX
FFXII
FFXIII

Tales, I've beaten:
Destiny
Symphonia
Abyss
Vesperia
Xillia

I mean, sure, I've also spent many, many hours with other games in both series without having beaten them, but I just find it odd that I've finished more in a sort of "secondary" JRPG series, as opposed to the ultra-popular, AAA Final Fantasy series.

phpBB [video]

What do you guys think of this Phantasy Star Nova trailer? Its for Vita and developed by Tri-Ace. I dont think it looks too bad for a Vita game, but something about the visual style seems off. I am still interested in it though, what do you think the chances are of it coming west?

The gameplay looks really... empty. There's literally about one enemy on-screen at any given time. Kinda boring, to be honest. Could just be early footage though, not sure. Even so, it just looks like yet another Monster Hunter clone.
As for the visual style, it looks a helluva lot like a Xenosaga spinoff or something. Just in terms of character designs.

[AnimeGamer183]

^ I was thinking more Star Ocean cause it is made by Tri-Ace

and wtf OL? thats all the FFs you have beaten? dude...

[Rakim]

Oh yeah, I got that beat. I've never beaten any of them and I only ever played the Sony era ones. 7, 8, 9 and 10 to be exact.

[OL]

^ I was thinking more Star Ocean cause it is made by Tri-Ace

The Last Hope, maybe... pretty similar to that, I think. But they don't look much at all like the rest of the Star Ocean series.

and wtf OL? thats all the FFs you have beaten? dude...

Something wrong with that? The odd thing about Final Fantasy is that every game in the series has a different style to it, so they all have different appeal. Honestly, anything pre-FFVI seem a bit bland, so that's a whole five games that are pretty "meh" to me (FFIV seems like it might be good, and I've wanted to get into it for a while now because of the spiffy PSP release it got, but it hasn't been able to hold my attention thus far, as much as I've tried).
I'll likely get into VI eventually, as I've been wanting to for years, but the urge for an SNES game of its type hasn't struck me in a long time. I'll hit it eventually. Just haven't gotten there.
And I still have just about no interest in FFIX. Something about its style always struck me as a weird regression from FFVII and VIII, and I've never seen a single thing from it that makes me think "I need to play this."
As for FFVIII, I've seen almost the entire game from start to finish from having watched my brother play it when we were kids, so it actually has a special place of its own for me. But I haven't personally beaten it myself, so I don't count it among my own finishes. I've only actually finished about half of it myself. Still know the game really well, regardless.
And like I said, that's only the main-series. I've also beaten Crisis Core, FFTactics, and Dirge of Cerberus. You act like only beating four main-series games makes me an FF virgin or something.

[AnimeGamer183]

I think the way you said it made it sound like that. I have beaten 6-12 and played 11 to some extent. 1-5 I have limited experience with but I have turned on every single numbered game and played for some amount of time. FF9 is great dude, its probably more familiar territory than you think, although it did take me a long time to finally beat it. I like the throw back games like FF9 and Bravely Default (even though I havent beaten default yet and it has some issues) but going back the less common job classes from the older games is always a treat.

[Thief]

To this day I'll stick by my guns and say that Final Fantasy V is the best Final Fantasy to date. Job system is fun and rewarding, cast is incredibly likeable and lighthearted, and the plot knows it's silly and doesn't take itself too seriously... like many of the other games in the series.

Plus Job Fiesta! A challenge in which you are given four jobs (by a bot) that you are only allowed to use throughout the game. The replayability is endless. If you're going to play any of the older games, OL, then this is my recommendation (not that you have to follow it but I'll put it out there anyway).

[Sonikku]

And the main character's name is Butz.

[OL]

Oh.
My.
FREAKIN' God.
New Earth Defense Force game. And at first, that might not sound all that exciting. The games do tend to be pretty similar to each other, so there's rarely anything new enough to get freaked out over.
But holy shit, this is great.

phpBB [video]

The trailer mainly focuses on the usual on-ground action, as is expected, but there's a huge surprise in there: remote-controlled giant robots!
It's like they've brought back Robot Alchemic Drive!
(one of my favorite obscurities on PS2, which I've been wanting more of for years)
The robot's movements even look the same, like its punches are still going to be controlled with the analog sticks.
That's exciting as hell to me. I loved that game so much.
I just hope this actually gets localized... I'm really not sure how well the last EDF did, so I'm a bit worried.

[Henry Spencer]

I personally think it's a shame that Sandlot do nothing but Earth Defense Force games. That trailer looked pretty cool, though.

and wtf OL? thats all the FFs you have beaten? dude...

I've only ever beaten II, VI and XII, whatchoo going to do now?
I've also beaten Tactics. Many times. Oh, and Crisis Core. Once. And that was enough. Hoo boy, did I have enough of that battle system after that was over.

And how any SMT/MegaTen games have you beaten, animegamer? Since I've beaten this many:

SMT: Devil Survivor (Overclocked on 3DS)
Devil Summoner - Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army
Devil Summoner - Soul Hackers (3DS version)
Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSP version)
Persona 4 (Golden version)
Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei 3 - Lucifer's Call (or Nocturne as it is called in the US)
Digital Devil Saga
Digital Devil Saga 2

What's that? You've beaten how many? 0 SMT games? dude...

[OL]

Strange thing, as much as I love SMT, and as long as I've been into it, I've only fully completed:
Nocturne
Digital Devil Saga 1
Devil Summoner (PS2)
...
...shit, only three?
Wow. I feel like I might be forgetting one or something...
Either way, I've still spent sooooooooo many hours with Personas 1, 3, and 4 that it's not even funny, and the same goes for DDS2 and Devil Survivor. I just haven;t finished them.
Really need to get on that.

[Henry Spencer]

Once I start an SMT game, I just can't put them down. I get pretty much glued to them. The only ones I've played a significant amount of and not finished yet are Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Raidou 2 and Devil Survivor 2 and in the first case the only reason I stopped was because I got stuck on a particular boss, on the second case was because I lost all of my save files thanks to my dead PS3 and in the last case was because my 3DS got nicked with it still in the console!

A mighty shame, since I greatly enjoyed all three. Oh yeah, and SMT1 on SNES emulator too, but the game got too buggy to continue playing that too. It just didn't work anymore.

I have the same problem with FF games as you do with SMT games; I start them and never finish them. Good games though. None of them have grabbed me like XII and Tactics ever did though, XV looks like that sort of game more in tune with what I like to play (love my action RPGs). I'm actually thinking of giving VII a proper go this time however, since I do like the aesthetics of that game.

[AnimeGamer183]

Is Nintendo not at TGS? Or are we going to have to wait till saturday or sunday for their stuff?