What Are You Playing (Summer 2012)

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

...

[Pineapple]

I am very upset at Mass Effect 2 for giving me the option to walk through my ship and step into the air lock but NOT allowing me to eject myself into the icy blackness of space. Who says Shepard doesn't want to commit suicide? Hopefully they addressed this glaring oversight in 3.

[Andrew]

I'm about to play Yakuza: Dead Souls. Light some candles and say a prayer for me.

I am very upset at Mass Effect 2 for giving me the option to walk through my ship and step into the air lock but NOT allowing me to eject myself into the icy blackness of space. Who says Shepard doesn't want to commit suicide? Hopefully they addressed this glaring oversight in 3.

Fox News would get very upset.

[sleeve]

I'm playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2. In many ways, this is like the laziest sequel ever -- many of the minor character sprites are DIRECTLY ripped from DS. But in many other, more important ways, the changes that they DID make make it a really really awesome sequel.

These MegaTen games remind me of the old Gold Box games on PC. Sure the systems were basically the same from game to game, but it was D&D and it was awesome and so you didn't care.

[Geo]

I'm playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2. In many ways, this is like the laziest sequel ever -- many of the minor character sprites are DIRECTLY ripped from DS. But in many other, more important ways, the changes that they DID make make it a really really awesome sequel.

Those changes for the better, is that in comparison to just the original Devil Survivor or does that also include Devil Survivor Overlocked (nice job recently completing that btw) as well?

I've got a copy of DS Overclocked I'm looking forward to playing sometime soon, as my long-overdue entry to MegaTen.

[Andrew]

I'm playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2. In many ways, this is like the laziest sequel ever -- many of the minor character sprites are DIRECTLY ripped from DS. But in many other, more important ways, the changes that they DID make make it a really really awesome sequel.

I wonder if this will get the Overclocked treatment like the first one did. I'm playing the first one on and off--it's my first SMT ever--and I'm having a good time. But holy shit, is it ever a time suck.

[sleeve]

I wonder if this will get the Overclocked treatment like the first one did. I'm playing the first one on and off--it's my first SMT ever--and I'm having a good time. But holy shit, is it ever a time suck.

Yeah, pretty much every MegaTen game is a massive time suck. But once you get the hang of the MegaTen style, it's really addicting.

There's no way of knowing if DS 2 will get the Overclocked treatment. But I doubt it. Overclocked really did add a lot of content and I don't think it really sold that much.

Those changes for the better, is that in comparison to just the original Devil Survivor or does that also include Devil Survivor Overlocked (nice job recently completing that btw) as well?

Yeah, it improves upon the DS original and Overclocked. Overclocked doesn't improve upon DS's core mechanics, it just adds voice acting, a ton of new story content, and more demons. So it actually represents a huge improvement over DS/Overclocked's mechanics (which were already pretty solid).

In DS 2, the auctions are more than just glorified demon merchants. There's a little bit more strategy in bidding, because you can read the inclinations of the other bidders, in that you can actually tell if they're going to bid high or low. There are also special auctions that occasionally appear which offer 5-star demons with special skills, often skills that you would not have access to at your current level.

There are also a lot more playable characters that you gain access to earlier in the game. In DS/Overclocked, depending on the route you chose, you could end up with as few as 5 or as many as 8. In either case you had to spend 20-30 hours before getting more than 4 selectable characters. In DS 2, I'm about 5 hours in and I'm about to have 6 possible characters to choose from.

[NGEFreek]

Still playing that Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL.

I thought I would have returned this already, but alas, I've been playing it off and on for like two weeks now. Got the " difficult" achievements out of the way with the exception of maybe one more.

Once I went back through on Hard mode, I found a decent stage to milk for coins to unlock stages/costumes/characters, so that's comforting. I'll have 1000/1000 by tonight if I want to.

Its still a ways away from smash bros, but not nearly as bad as I had originally interpreted it to be.

[MechDeus]

Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix+ - Level 76, game cleared, Ultima made, Sephiroth down, 3/12 Mushroom XIIIs, all stage memories killed, 300/301 treasures, and 100% puzzles so far. Just need to grind a bit more to hit 99 and I think I'll have to farm the data memories to get my stats high enough to handle fighting Terra's armor.

[Yoshi]

And a partridge in a pear tree...