Gaming General (Special Limited Deluxe Digital Edition)

So, carrying on...

Well, obviously playing MH4U now, more or less exclusively.
That will of course change in a couple days when Hyperdevotion Noire comes out, and I've still got my eye on Hotaru no Nikki, although I'm not sure I want to pay more than $5-$10 for it.

Before MH4U came out, I did manage to ~finish~ Bioshock Infinite - although I'll probably replay it again at some point for more of a challenge. Admittedly, the first time I played it, I set the difficulty to easy so that there would be practically nothing preventing me from just being able to relax and check out the environment while idly exploring the story - all while still getting the game cleared in a relatively timely manner. However, now that is out of the way, I may at some point go for 1999 mode - or at least a reasonably challenging mode.

I was also playing Ni no Kuni back to back with Bioshock Infinite, although obviously there is a major difference in length. I think I got about 10-15 hours into Ni no Kuni before MH4U came out and unsurprisingly monopolized my game time. Great game so far - pity it took me so long to get around to actually playing it. The animation and gameplay are excellent for the most part. My only real gripe about Ni no Kuni is the pacing kind of leans on the slow side, but would still be tolerable in and of itself - except it is made worse by the fact that the movement/physical action in the game is kinda painfully slow. Whether running around towns or traveling the overworld (even with the bonus that speeds up your movement in the overworld), your characters just move so slow. I mean, I know the main characters are just kids, but they could have at least given you a party-wide levitation spell or something that just lets you float and glide above the ground and pick up some really speed. But meh...at least the battles are a decent pace.

Noire gets a spinoff and you said somewhere is a strategy RPG rather than just RPG, right?

How much exploring did you do in Bioshock? As much as you could? I imagine you still missed a few things, but it still serves to see... something. Not sure where I was going with that. But yeah, I'd say go replay it on an actual difficulty, eventually.

I've seen a little bit of gameplay of Ni no Kuni thanks to TheCompletionist and Jessie Cox, and I got a huge Pokemon vibe crossed with a more modern RPG. Not too far off, right? And oh, sounds like Ni no Kuni is Xenoblade 2, Electric Slowbaloo. That's such a major fun killer, spending 20 hours just walking because you have little to no speed. Battles might be fast, sure, but story and exploration progression are halted because you're slower than a Rhino stuck in quicksand.

Also, as expected, I have not gone back to FF9 since getting MH. Sorry Zidane!

Yeah, the Noire spinoff is the Neptunia series' first foray into the SRPG genre (grid-based, with dynamic environments, to be more specific). There is also Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed (sadly not for Wii U), which appears to be a dynasty warriors type entry. It actually looks pretty good, but as you might guess, I am reluctant to pay full price. Meanwhile, Hyperdevotion Noire is also (afaik) basically their first go at giving one of the other goddesses her "own game," although I remember hearing that Blanc would have her...erm...~signature~ title after not too long. No idea what that's going to be like though. Maybe they'll do something akin to a Zelda adventure, or a Mario-esque sidescroller/platformer. Sure, Nintendo has its fair share of RPGs, but the core series is RPG...and a Pokemon style title would be more for Ram and Rom than Blanc. Obviously Vert's game would pretty much have to be an FPS.

I did quite a bit of exploring in Bioshock Infinite. Blind/guideless for my first run, obviously. I actually accomplished a fair amount. I was only like 3 audio tapes (or whatever they call the recordings) away from 100% on those, and I think I only missed 4 or 5 of the ~sightseeing~ opportunities - probably early in the game. I wasn't too obsessed with looking through every pair of binoculars/lookout stands that I saw, but I'm sure I watched just about every movie they had in the game. Hung around, listened to pretty much every conversation, including enemy dialogue before/during/after fights. Heck, I even let Handyman fights draw out and spent some time experimenting with different attacks/terrain approaches just to provoke different dialogue. Similar deal with hanging out with Elizabeth - took the time to see what she had to say and see what she could/would do in a wide range of situations. Pretty nice that they made her a highly competent companion instead of making most of the game a dead-weight escort mission.

Yeah, pretty much everything about Ni no Kuni is so great aside from that one issue with the speed.

Ohlol - I almost forgot you were playing FF9.
How are you on PQ?

So basically the plan is to have a Hyperdimension: Everything? Or am I missing something?

Wow, you got a lot more than I expected for a first run. I haven't run through it myself yet, but still. That's a good chunk of stuff, and very little you'd need a guide for.

Well, at least speed is the only issue, unlike with Xenoblade.

Yeah, I got to a bit past Queenie, and then stopped. As for PQ, I'm still sitting outside the door to the 4th boss. MH has taken all of my time.

My plan or their plan? Lol - I haven't even bought Re;birth 2 yet, and I doubt I'll buy Producing Perfection, at least not until it is well around the $5 mark, if even then. In any case, I'm nowhere near Hyperdimension everything.

Heh - still haven't looked too much into Xenoblade. Would really like to see some news on Xenosaga collection for PS4.

Oh wow - you stopped just before the 4th boss in PQ? Man - that's like a Parayste-tier cliffhanger. Dat atmsophere. The spoilers. Also, it's where you find out the thing involving the stuff. Aren't you maddeningly curious about that stuff, and doing the thing?

Then again, MH4U actually has a fairly compelling story. Not spectacular, but I am really enjoying how there's enough to it and some fleshed-out dialogue that really gives you some food for thought. Of course, I have always enjoyed reading between the lines and figuring out MH lore, reading quest descriptions, and piecing together the bits of information given to you throughout the game as in previous titles, but MH4U's approach kind of helps seal the deal. I think we're at a point, at least, where I can confidently say that MH has quantitatively and qualitatively better story delivery than a Souls game, if there was any doubt on that point in previous MH titles. inb4 the hate.

Well, interesting tidbit of news-
Apparently Imageepoch has updated some information about its upcoming SRPG, Stella Glow, which sounds fairly cool from what little we know about it.

Aaand...published by SEGA.
****.
So basically, news quite possibly translates to ~Imageepoch confirms Stella Glow will not be localized~.

Well, I guess maybe, just maybe, there's some chance for NISA to bear the publishing burden for NA...

Edit/Update- I have decided upon a possible tentative title for Blanc's game, if they go with the retro-platformer: Hypermotion Blanc: Hammerknight White Heart.
With obligatory Shovelknight DLC content.

Although ideally I'd rather see them stick to an RPG core, even if they blend genres.

Wow - it's been a while since PSN sales have caught my eye, but this weekend's flash sale is kinda insane. Quite a few titles for <$1, and actually a few legit gems instead of just a bunch of bargain-bin software. Main titles I'd consider getting are:
Katamari Damaci
Game of Thrones (Cyanide, not Telltale) [Yeah, I've heard it was pretty meh, but for <$1]
Breath of Fire IV
Wild Arms 1 & 2
Myst
Galaga Legends

Buy Katamari like 10 times. You know you want to.

I just purchased Fossil Fighters: Frontiers for the 3DS and Ni no Kuni yesterday. I'm happy to have a more casual game to play in Fossil Fighters when I have a bit of free time, because it doesn't require nearly as much attention as MH does. I picked up Ni no Kuni cause I saw it and have been meaning to play it since it came out, so I'm not sure why I hadn't bought it before.

For those curious, Fossil Fighters: Frontiers is the third installment in a dinky little series called Fossil Fighters (go figure). The first two, Fossil Fighters and Fossil Fighters: Champions, came out for the DS in 2009 and 2011 respectively. It's sort of like Pokemon in the aspect that you find and battle with monsters, only the monsters happen to be revived dinosaurs called Vivosaurs and instead of catching them you have to find and excavate their fossils. It's pretty neat ^^

The marketing the Nintendo of America twitter does with fossil fighters is so very stupid, and not in a good way. Every tweet about it compares Vivosaurs to real dinos. And Ni no Kuni is also Pokemon-like. You're really buying all the Pokemons.

During break, I actually did get some non-MH gaming done. I should've played Persona Q, but played Saints Row 4 and Super Meat Boy instead. Them achievements.

Oh trust me, the advertising for the first game was much better. There were a number of advertisements that showed up in children's magazines like National Geographic Kids, which is where I first saw it, and if my memory is correct there was a TV commercial too. What do you mean by "comparing Vivosaurs to real dinos", though? They're all based on actual dinosaurs, though with a few artistic liberties taken.

Ah. Well, it's definitely not astoundingly creative but it's not as terrible as I expected.

Ragnia wrote:

I just purchased Fossil Fighters: Frontiers for the 3DS and Ni no Kuni yesterday. I'm happy to have a more casual game to play in Fossil Fighters when I have a bit of free time, because it doesn't require nearly as much attention as MH does. I picked up Ni no Kuni cause I saw it and have been meaning to play it since it came out, so I'm not sure why I hadn't bought it before.

For those curious, Fossil Fighters: Frontiers is the third installment in a dinky little series called Fossil Fighters (go figure). The first two, Fossil Fighters and Fossil Fighters: Champions, came out for the DS in 2009 and 2011 respectively. It's sort of like Pokemon in the aspect that you find and battle with monsters, only the monsters happen to be revived dinosaurs called Vivosaurs and instead of catching them you have to find and excavate their fossils. It's pretty neat ^^

Heh - never got around to playing Fossil Fighters. Always figured that if I was going to go down the ~not quite Pokemon, but pretty decent mon game~, I'd just pick up one of the several Digimon titles I never got around to playing.

Ni no Kuni is an excellent choice obviously, although I've barely scratched the surface of it myself. My only real issue with the game, as previously stated, is the super-slow movement pace of the characters. Again, yeah, he's only a kid, but ****ing levitation spell or something. The odd thing is that you actually do get a power-up that increases movement speed in the overworld, but even then it's pretty slow, so it's almost like the game is rubbing your face in the fact more so than doing anything to address the issue.

---

So many random tidbits of news recently I'm not even going to bother trying to address them all. Off the top of my head -

The PC version of Bloodborne, apparently titled Bloodborne: Nightmare Edition has been quasi-confirmed (listed by retailers). We all pretty much knew this was going to happen. Kinda hilarious to see it right off the bat like this, especially before they've even really had the chance to pile on the DLC they totally weren't already going to make because Bloodborne is definitely a complete and absolutely satisfying experience without any DLC.

Meanwhile, Digimon: Cyber Sleuth apparently sold through 91% of its first shipment. That's pretty incredible, all things considered (even though apparently the first shipment was pretty small, so it actually translates into kinda mediocre net sales). Maybe, just maybe, especially with Digimon Adventure Tri right around the corner, it won't be too much to expect a localization of Cyber Sleuth.

If I haven't already mentioned it, ATLUS being awesome as usual - picked up the localization for Lost Dimension in NA (funnily enough, NISA is handling the EU localization).

And there was some other stuff that keeps on slipping my mind...but meh.

I'll leave it at that for now I suppose.

EDIT:
Heh - I guess I'll add a PS of sorts to note that I did wind up getting Breath of Fire IV and Katamari Damacy, but I stopped at that (mainly because I had just barely over $2 in my PSN wallet, and couldn't be bothered to add more right now).

Good boy, picking up Katamari. Go make some stars!

Also, I am actually really surprised they actually are doing Bloodborne PC. Too bad I won't get it anyway. Saving it for... who knows what.

Oh wow.
For the first time in a long time, I'm actually tempted to buy a PS4.
I completely ignored the Bloodborne Bundle when amazon posted it yesterday at like $440 for the PS4+Bloodborne+standard download code for TLOUR.

But it seems amazon realized that was a ****ing weak deal and upped the ante. Now the deal has been revised to be PS4+Bloodborne+TLOUR code+$20 gift card for $400. This is probably one of the best deals in a while. Considering Bloodborne is still generally $60 or at least $40 even with a generous sale and TLOUR still values at about $30 by itself, this deal basically brings the effective ~cost~ of the PS4 down to a mere $290~$310, roughly speaking. Either way, pretty wicked. Although...since TLOUR is basically a given with practically any PS4 purchase these days, I suppose it wouldn't be unfair to take it out of the equation when really breaking down the price value, but still, that basically puts this bundle at $320~$340 for the PS4.

All of that said, I'm not sure I'll actually get this bundle, and there are mainly 3 reasons why:
*It's technically better than the $330 black friday/christmas PS4s, but it's still not quite as spectacular in terms of value as that ridiculous bundle that included the camera, and basically brought the PS4 price down to like $270 or $280 depending on how you ran it up. So, I find this bundle really tempting at face value...but prices vary quite a bit these days (heh, The Order was down to $40 the other day)...and the deal is basically a PS4 with $20 off until I get to actually play the games it comes with...

*Highlighting a key point above, I don't really have any time to play Bloodborne right now, and I've made it this far without a PS4 - it would probably be a terrible idea to get a new console in this last month of school when it's really crunch time and all my major school assignments are due in a few weeks.

*Similar to above - I haven't even exhausted Dark Souls 2, and FromSoft has more or less completely lost my trust in terms of buying vanillas of just about anything...despite the fact that I'd admittedly still make an exception and probably buy a PS4 in this situation without hesitation if we were talking about Armored Core 6 here, even though I haven't even started Verdict Day. So yeah, I'll probably just wait for the PC version of Bloodborne or the GOTY/G/All DLC edition when/if I do get it.

Bloodborne is amazing, Vanilla is amazing, because then when you go buy the new flavor, it tastes so much better.

Lol. Point noted.
Problem is, it doesn't really matter how amazing a game is when there's no real certainty of whether I'll have time to play it.
Plus, I'm all too familiar with FromSoft's track record with updating games. Give it a few patches, and ~vanilla~ will be completely a thing of the past considering how fickle the devs are. After the mess that was Dark Souls 2, I'm not going to give them the benefit of the doubt again by being an early adopter only to see the game FUBAR'd or otherwise so heavily-edited/patched that there really is no ~definitive~ experience unless you got it from day one and blitzed it as fast as possible. Since I've already more or less missed that window, yeah...

Still, pretty good bundle - and easily some of the best value for PS4 in a long time.

Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll have a bundle still available some time from now when it will finally be worth it?

Even if the game is good and all, it just seems like more souls, just Victorian Ed Hardy

Actually, I heard that Bloodborne draws from some Cthulhu mythos for inspiration, so I'd almost be sold on it just for that...

But meh...

Meanwhile, new Nintendo Direct just around the corner. My guess is a major focus on Xenoblade Chronicles X and possibly Splatoon. Obviously my most anticipated news would be finally having some substantive information about SMTxFire Emblem. They also said Fire Emblem 2015 was...well, supposed to be Fire Emblem 2015, so there's that.

Also amazon finally has Lost Dimension up. Probably gonna preorder that ****....right after I get back from class. PS3/Vita, and from everything I've seen and heard, it's basically Valkyria Chronicles meets Danganronpa, so yeah, looking forward to it.

Edit/Update:
Heh. Freaking awesome. Apparently Stella Glow will be localized, thanks to ATLUS. Maybe, just maybe, SEGA will no longer be a dead end/barrier to international releases, what with ATLUS still doing ATLUS.

I feel like bumping this because I am bored during class.

Bravely Second came out today in Japan. Cue spoiler hiding.

Lol. So much news, I've pretty much lost track of everything I might want to update this thread with.

Yeah, Bravely Second, and there's already talk about what direction the devs are thinking about going with Bravely Third. As long as they keep the quality up, I suppose I don't take too much issue with them wanting it to be a more or less annual series.

Hopefully E3 isn't terrible this year, but meh - even if it is, there are so many great games to play this summer and games coming out this year that we already know about.

Other than the obvious ATLUS stuff, the biggest general gaming news that comes to mind is Square Enix talking about getting ready to make the next proper Mana game (possibly SD5) and finally getting the Vita version of Rise of Mana complete...maybe they'll actually get around to localizing it.

As for more personal gaming news...lol...just plat'd Hyperdevotion Noire today, so I'll probably be going back to MH4U and Bayonetta, if I have any time.

I'm slightly tempted to get Shovel Knight on PSN, since it's 3-way cross-buy and there's a small discount on it this week for PS+ members. I would have liked to get it on the Wii U...but dat cross-buy. Also Kratos lol.

And...Nintendo's doing a livestream of Xenoblade Chronicles X tomorrow, so that's cool. I probably won't watch it though, because I already know I'll be buying the game. Still, more power to them.

Oh, and Summon Night 5 and Class of Heroes 3 are getting localized, so that might be cool if the price is right.

I don't wanna know anything about Bravely Second or Third. I wanna experience B2nd before seeing anything at all about either of them. (also over the summer I have to finish my 2nd BD run)

Well, E3 is going to be Nintendo hyping up everything else they have this year (Xenogears X, Splatoon, Yoshi's Wooly), Sony and M$ doing something, Square hyping FF15 and the next Deus Ex which will probably be amazing if it is anything like HR, with slight hints of the new Mana game.

Congrats on platting, get back to those games! Bayo is worth it, and MH is always MH.

3 way cross buy... wow that's value. And the game is worth it, with Plague Knight's campaign around the corner.

I might watch the Xenogears X stream, if just a little bit. I'm pretty excited for it, for as much as I hated Xenoblade. I wanna see more about the "Raids."

Yeah, I know how it goes. I generally try to semi-avoid spoilers for the most part too, although I do like a bit of...iunno...I suppose you could call it narrative primer? As long as the ~spoilers~ are more or less limited to about what you'd gather from reading a blurb and playing the beginningest portion of the game, I don't really mind. I think the Persona 5 promotional video is more or less a golden standard for what I mean by that.

Yeah, Deus Ex - w00t. The price of the Wii U version of HR is going down - sitting at around $15~20 last time I checked. Maybe I'll pick that up this summer for kicks, even though the thought of buying it at that price still kinda irks me because it can often be found on steam for around the $5 mark. Same story with Valkyria Chronicles of all things...I always wanted to hold out and play it on the PS3 for the definitive experience, but with the disc version still hovering around $15 and the cost of separate DLC versus the all-in-one steam version that is typically cheaper...meh...

The real joke is I totally called it, and this was one of my many criticisms of Playstation and Xbox back when I only owned Nintendo consoles and otherwise stuck to PC gaming and using friends' consoles for the rest - Playstation and Xbox just can't really retain or even justify their exclusives, especially as the consoles themselves continue to slip more and more into the realm of just being generic, underpowered PCs without anything to really set them apart experientially or justify them economically depending on how you add up the costs.

But who knows? Maybe Valkyria Chronicles collection will have a Project Morpheus compatible PS4 exclusive version, and we'll start to see Sony actually standing their ground in the market.

Lol - thanks for the congrats. The plat wasn't too bad. The Lily rank trophies were somewhat troublesome at first, but it gets much faster maxing out characters the more you go. As for the rest of the challenge/skill trophies...again, most of it was just paying attention to the game and playing well/maintaining focus. On a sidenote, Moru was frequently one of my MvPs throughout the game, and like the 4th or 5th character I max'd in the lily rank system - Monster Hunter ftw.

Yeah, I went ahead and bought Shovel Knight. Figured since they're still supporting it with DLC, and it was a GOTY-tier pick for many people last year, and 3-way cross-buy, it would have been really stingy to turn it down, especially with that token PS+ discount price. Only played the first level so far. Pretty great stuff. Kinda annoyed that I had an almost-flawless area run on the first level - got careless and took a hit from a slime that was ~hidden~ in one of the sand blocks. First boss wasn't too troublesome, but I did slip up toward the end and find myself in a ~when it rains it pours~ situation where I forgot to watch my health...and lol. Meanwhile, my second fight, I only took one little scratch hit, and had an otherwise flawless fight...so close, yet so far.

Wow - the Golden Week sale on PSN is insane, especially with PS+. This is really turning out to be an excellent yearly sale; hope they keep it going.

In particular I'll probably go ahead and get Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 2 for $23, since I doubt I'll see the physical release anywhere near that price for some time, if it even gets down to that point before selling out. Hotaru no Nikki is also down to $9, so I'll go ahead and grab that since it's under the $10 I initially expected to pay for it.

I'm also thinking about getting Guided Fate Paradox, since it's finally dirt cheap at a mere $5. Plenty of classics around that price or cheaper too, including Suikoden II. I'm also tempted to consider getting Natural Doctrine, since it's down to $16...

So many great games...heh, PSN stuff alone could pretty much destroy my summer...plus all the 3DS and Wii U gaming to do...meh...I feel like summer's already over, pretty much.