Gaming General (Special Limited Deluxe Digital Edition)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playtonic/yooka-laylee-a-3d-platformer-rare-vival

So I pledged to this immediately when I noticed Grant Kirkhope was doing the music. Nothing more required to be said.

Yeah - this caught my interest as soon as I saw the announcement. Kirkhope is also a huge plus of course. Heh - day one and they're already halfway through their stretch goals. Pretty much guaranteed to make that ~all console simultaneous release~, easily.

Wow, these past couple of days have been such a gaming news rush that it's more or less another one of those occasions where there is too much for me to remember in a post, especially with everything happening during finals.

Nevertheless - some major highlights (for me):
*Booyeah - the definitive Playstation Vita exclusive version, Ar nosurge Plus: Ode to an Unborn Star, confirmed for localization and coming out at the beginning of July. I'm glad I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited for it, although now I feel somewhat sorry for those who jumped on the vanilla PS3 version.
*Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains coming out May 12th. I'm still on the fence about buying it since there are already so many games for me to play, but still - it's great news, and I'll probably play it eventually.
*Splatoon Demo w00t - but I've covered that in another thread, so I won't go into full details here.
*Rise of Mana Vita version coming out soon, finally. Still no word on localization as far as I've heard, but at least I know that I won't be completely shut out from playing it...even if it means going through the mess of changing regional accounts on the Vita...
*And of course, I'm still looking forward to Lost Dimension, although in regard to some other titles I've been keeping my eye on, I'll probably give Dungeon Travelers 2 and Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed a miss, or wait for a pricedrop.
*Sort of goes without saying at this point, but **** yeah DS2: Record Breaker is HERE!

And then more news happens with Iga's new Castlevania.

Between packing today, I got in an attempt at the 4th Persona Q boss.

How the hell am I supposed to beat this guy? What level and strategy were you using, Anubis? Even with a fairly defensive set-up, I barely got him down to his "Endure" phase.

Lostsoldier20 wrote:

Between packing today, I got in an attempt at the 4th Persona Q boss.

How the hell am I supposed to beat this guy? What level and strategy were you using, Anubis? Even with a fairly defensive set-up, I barely got him down to his "Endure" phase.

Seems like it's been a while, Lost.

w00t - finally back to PQ, and the fourth boss at that. Time for hip hop spoilers? What level are you, in any case? I might have a couple QR codes on my computer that you might find useful depending on where you are at.

Hip Hop:

Aaand...in other gaming/general news:
The PSN flash sale that's going on right now actually has some pretty noteworthy titles. In particular, they've actually cut down both Soul Sacrifice Delta and Freedom Wars to <$5. I almost jumped on Freedom Wars as soon as I saw it at that price, but funnily enough, seeing it right next to Soul Sacrifice Delta put me off when it reminded me of the likelihood that I'll almost inevitably see an announcement for Freedom Wars G or Freedom Wars 2 as soon as I buy the vanilla version. Meanwhile, I'm actually tempted to get Soul Sacrifice Delta - even though I haven't even finished Soul Sacrifice and it hasn't seen any playtime for ages. At least with Soul Sacrifice, I heard that Delta lets you import your character with all quest progress and stuff from the vanilla version...and at <$5...the price kind of makes up for the G version pretty much rendering vanilla obsolete. Then again, I don't really have any time to play Soul Sacrifice (or Freedom Wars) for that matter...so even though it's a very good deal, I'm thinking I'll just sit on it and hope I see Soul Sacrifice discounted like this again some day.

It has been awhile. But school is over now, so I can finally do stuff other than regret all life decisions.

And yeah, like I mentioned before the stop, I was at the final floor when other things needed attention. I won't be cheating my way past it, that's for sure.

I hip, I hop, and I just can't stop:

Those seem like some good sales, though I'd only nab Soul Sacrifice. Though while you have no time, I'd agree in both being bad choices for you.

In other general news: More high-profile kickstarters!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night
First Yooka-Laylee, now this.

**** yeah Castlevania Bloodstained.

Well, there is that lyric, "if you don't regret nothing then you might as well be dead." But meh...regrets? You probably did fine over the semester, and it's not like you've chosen a bad degree/field of study, right? I managed to survive my classes it seems...so I guess we both have that part of the year behind us, for better or worse.

Lol, I remember. Unfortunate timing, that - being torn away from SMT/Persona just long enough to take ages to get back to it. I'm glad I finally managed to finish my run of P3FES last year.

Make me hip like bad ***:

And meh...
Gaming news...so many little things, but most of them just rehashes of familiar/covered topics.
Heh - saw an ad on my Wii U gamepad for another Splatoon demo event. I'll probably try to catch it if I can, even though the full game comes out in like a week after the event is scheduled.

Meanwhile, I've been making steady progress in Neptunia Re;Birth 2. Almost got all of the endings- working on the true ending route and other ~completionist~ trophies now. No clue how long it will be until I actually earn the platinum though, because Stella's Dungeon takes a while. That said, I actually quite like Stella's Dungeon. It's one of the cooler minigames I've seen in a while, and it also kind of amuses me because it is actually a legitimate minigame in a full release - in this day and age when so many games like it would just as easily be released as stand-alone titles with cash-milking designs.

And in other news, Konami continues its plunge...
I guess this means no ZoE Tri?

Speaking of Tri, Witcher Tri? Witcher Tri.
Lol, I still don't have a PS4, and I'm not sure if my computer can handle it to a degree that would allow for it to outshine the PS4 version.

I'll do a proper response to your post after I unpack, but first:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

http://nichegamer.com/2015/05/cyberconnect2-is-releasing-an-hd-remake-of-hackg-u/

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Lolyeah. Wicked news is wicked. I was going to mention that, along with Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence (aka Creation) getting a localization. All the win?

2 more trophies to go until I plat Re;Birth 2 (specifically - the trophy for getting a ridiculous amount of credits, and the trophy for completing Stella's Dungeon).

That regretting life decisions was mostly a joke. I just hate Calc and that Calc teacher.

I dunno, I got right back into PQ the moment I was freed for good. I actually got a lot of progress.

75% of my power:

All I know is that I've been hearing tons and tons and TONS of great things about Splatoon after the Global testfires. I'm very shocked at the reception. A good shock, though.

Wow, you wasted no time in getting started on... finishing... all of Neptunia 2. And you mention a mini-game dungeon, but never went into what the mini-game is.

Well, I kinda already went over Konami falling apart with my Bloodstained link.

My friend insists we get Witcher 3... but I highly doubt my laptop can run it. I can Skyrim pretty well, but Witcher 3 is like 20 levels above that.

Also, again, .hack//G.U. remake! Aw man! And then, hopefully a .hack//O.G. remake (I need Skeith to terrify me in new and exciting ways) and then the new game!

Lol. But calc is fun though?

The more progress the better. Meh - between school finals and the aftermath/transition from the latest semester, my summer break feels like it is only really starting this week. I guess time to actually pick up MH4U and crack in to my summer backlog? How's your progress in 4U these days? Maybe we're still at roughly the same point...

Hip hop rage:

Lol - that reminds me, I still need to write up my impressions, although in many ways, much of what I experienced from playing Splatoon was pretty consistent with my predictions - including the fact that voicechat is pretty much unnecessary for a game like Splatoon, and in many cases, could actually do more harm than good. It's surprisingly fast-paced, and so much information is conveyed visually in-game as well as strategically on the gamepad that much of what people conventionally use voicechat for would be redundant or otherwise eclipsed by the game design itself, while people relying on vocal coordination and audible directions would arguably be liabilities more so than assets in such a game, at least in Turf War mode. Still, I get a chuckle from the irony of hearing people who constantly complain about the industry recycling cookie-cutter shooters proceed to whine about major game developers tossing out conventions that are long since taken-for-granted to the point of not being addressed even when they're actually borderline-useless or otherwise problematic and turning a genre on its head with legitimately fresh ideas. But whatever. Splatoon is great, and with or without voicechat, I'm looking forward to it, even and especially after the demo/test events.

Well, I actually feel like Neptunia Re;Birth 2 has been taking quite a bit of time...but maybe that's because finals week kind of causes a massive space/time distortion, and everything gets outta whack. Yeah, I kinda glazed over the mini-game/dungeon didn't I?

Stella's Dungeon is an ~optional~ (a couple of trophies and really useful plans/items can be gained from it, but it's not too important if you're just casually playing through the game for one or two runs' worth of story/gameplay) minigame. As a somewhat haphazard description, it's basically a lite Roguelike dungeon-crawler that has been implemented as a semi-automatic game in Re;Birth 2. Basically, you send Stella and Felis on their own adventures in the game's dungeons, and they complete those dungeons' areas in real time (including while the console is in sleep mode). In true hardcore roguelike fashion, they start at level 1 each time, go in with whatever equips you choose to give them, and carry on until they either clear all the areas you have assigned or fail along the way. Normally, they pick up various unique equipments for themselves to use in Stella's Dungeon and if they complete enough areas, they can also pick up items that you can use in the main game, so the whole thing has a sort of internal and external progress dynamic. Meanwhile, there's also a bit of strategy in it, in the sense that you can do a ~partial~ run of a dungeon and stagger your progress, ensuring that you gradually get better gear to make better progress - or you can go the gambler's route, throw on some of your best equipment, point to the last area of the dungeon, and hope for a safe return. This is also a bit of a mixed bag, because like many other roguelikes, by default, you actually lose stuff if you ~fail~ in exploration, although there is some cheap DLC you can get to counter that, and basically change Stella's Dungeon from a hardcore roguelike lite into one that's more simply RNG/gambling based.

Meanwhile, the actual dungeons in the Stella's Dungeon correspond to the dungeon's of the actual game, so you'll have to do at least a couple of playthroughs and unlock everything including the optional dungeons to ~complete~ Stella's Dungeon as well. As for actual progress, in most of the dungeons, it takes about 2-3 minutes real time for Stella and Felis to explore an area, and the first few dungeons are split up into about 10-25 areas, while the later dungeons have a lot more. As I type this, Stella and Felis are at level 32, HP: 341/360, STR: 324, VIT: 385, LUK: 70, fighting in Area 50 of an 85-Area dungeon. My general strategy so far has been to send them in with ~tank~ builds - armor that contributes to HP gains and Vitality increases, special items that heal a bit after each battle, and the borderline-essential Warning Bell accessory that counters traps. I started out with a more or less slow-and-steady pace, going area by area mostly, but I don't really have the patience for that in these larger dungeons, so I've just been sort of hoping that Stella and Felis can manage after a few tries of me pointing them to the end and seeing how far they can get.

Aaand...what else? Lol - an announcement for a Nobunaga's Ambition game that's actually going to be localized yesterday, and funnily enough, not too long after - an announcement of Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII.

Meanwhile, looks like they're modifying the Fire Emblem weapon triangle. The base is going to be the same, but it seems that they've decided to hybridize the weapon/magic/other all into one dynamic triangle. [sword and magic] > [axe and bow] > [lance and dark/hidden/concealed], going off of what Siliconera and a few others have posted (although that last bit is a bit...shady). Going from context though, I think it's safe to say that the ~dark~ weapons refer to the likes of daggers, unless they're going for some sort of cursed/dark angle, but then you'd expect to see an opposing ~holy~ weapon/magic distinctly listed. Heh - remember all the good old conversations we used to have about daggers...well now it looks like those weapons will be able to lower enemy stats and possibly cause other debilitating effects, making them a little more ~unique~/meaningful, and also with the new weapon triangle hybridization, a little more strategically significant. Meanwhile, maids, butlers, and ninjas lol.

And, in other news, I changed my mind and wound up buying Soul Sacrifice Delta before the flash sale was up. The more I thought about Soul Sacrifice, the more I remembered how much I enjoyed playing it, and then I did some (re-)reading up on Delta and the changes they made and stuff they added. Heh, Delta actually fixes a lot of criticisms I had of vanilla (and in particular adds another layer to the chaos/law dynamic and helps flesh out the overall factions of the world better). Plus, there's also the advantage of effectively getting to ~convert~ to digital (although ironically, I'll need to dig my physical copy of Soul Sacrifice out of storage to double-check my game and make sure it is as I want it to be before I transfer my save). In any case, I've been meaning to clear Soul Sacrifice of the backlog at some point, at least in terms of its story mode, but I've been put off playing it ever since Delta released at the full price of a new game without any other option to upgrade/convert conveniently from vanilla...until now of course. So yeah...basically, the <$5 Delta upgrade is more or less what I was looking for, all things considered. Heh, maybe they'll be kind enough to put Toukiden: Kiwami on sale for <$5 too, so I can ~upgrade/convert~ from vanilla without feeling like a chump who got swindled out of $30~$40 despite enthusiastically supporting a game's initial release. Admittedly, I'm still a bit salty about Soul Sacrifice pulling a Capcom, considering its heritage.

And meh. I guess I'll leave it at that. At some point, maybe I'll get around to the anime thread.

No it is not. Meanwhile, tomorrow I'm gonna try to get back into the hunt.

GARBAGE DAY?:

Gasp! You mean the thing all the smart people said we wouldn't need, and all the idiots said would ruin the game for not having, is good that the game doesn't have it?! What a surprise!!1! That aside, yeah, you just affirm everything everyone else is saying. As for the saying tossing out conventions stuff, I point you to the Mat Pat video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxhs-GLE29Q

Finals don't cause a distortion, they ARE the distortion!

Huh... for a "mini-game," that's pretty in-depth and pretty cool.

Wait that? Isn't Nobunaga's Ambition like, brand newish in terms of anime?

I'm... not sure how I feel about combing all of the options into a single triangle. Takes out a lot of the strategy.

Well, at least you got your money's worth out of it, for being a second purchase of the same game. Least you're not SomeCallMeJohnny and his literal 10+ copies of Sonic 1.

You actually did get to the anime thread.

I'm probably going to finish off my PQ grinding tonight and try another go at the 4th boss.

It's not? Huh...I've been trying to integrate your previous statements into the conversation based on the results derived from your earlier positions, but perhaps I will still have issues differentiating between good calculus and bad calculus with respect to your overall circumstances?

Big Persona:

Lolyeah, pretty much. Splatoon is the win, and by all indications, those of us who gave it a chance instead of mindlessly bashing Nintendo for trying something different are continuing to remain better off for actually being reasonable about things.

Heh - as for the MatPat video, yeah I remember that one, although it almost deserves a post/thread in and of itself to really get into that kind of conversation. A lot of decent points in the video, but also a lot of missed points - hidden issues and confounds, so to speak. For the most part, I don't disagree with that video's commentary on the state of things, but I do take issue with the sort of broad handling of ~gamers~. In many ways, the points made in that video reflect how the gaming demographic has dramatically changed and how much the industry has moved to overlap with mainstream entertainment, especially over the past decade. Meanwhile, there are pockets of gamers who do actually want innovation, but meh - either extreme is going to have its flaws, as usual.

I thought finals were the norm, and everything else was the exception? I mean, no matter what, I know I'm going to have finals of some sort.

Indeed, Stella's Dungeon is actually pretty robust for a mini-game. Again, one of the main reasons I find it impressive is that I can completely see other publishers trying to pass it off as a stand-alone iOS game or something and redesign it to be full cash-milking mode all day erryday - for example, microtransactions required to get your stuff back from a dungeon after failing or purchase better gear without going into a dungeon, or microtransactions required to skip areas/go through a dungeon faster, each time you want to - instead of the one-and-done format of the actual Stella's Dungeon. Lol, good old microtransactions designed to let you play the game less...

On a sidenote, all of the complex stuff about Stella's Dungeon out of the way, I more or less keep thinking of it as a fishing game. I mean, when all is said and done, you basically set up your hook, cast your line, and wait it out hoping you get a big catch from the depths. Lol - Rogue Worms that **** up the fish instead of just luring them are the best bait.

Anime aside, the video game series Nobunaga's Ambition dates back to the 80's man.

Well, I think there will still be a few things outside of the Fire Emblem triangle. It's pretty much never all-inclusive. Plus there still might also be internal differences, like magic elements trumping each other. I do have mixed sentiments about lances being strong against all magic and on par with whatever the ~dark/occult/concealed~ weapons are, especially since lances include javelins, which are already problematic enough for squishy mages without magic-wielders now being extra-weak against them. On a sidenote, it's not just the weapon triangle they're changing. There's also talk of overhauling the traditional equips and weapon grades to add an extra layer of strategy. From what I've seen of the examples, it looks like the stat penalties for higher-tier weapons are going to be more pronounced, so depending on what character you are working with and enemies you are fighting or other circumstances, it may be more beneficial to stick with steel or even iron weapons, for example, than go higher. I imagine they'll do a similar thing for magic, with high-tier tomes all being super-heavy or perhaps even ~cursed~ (that is, if the dark weapons aren't filling the ~cursed~ domain completely) so that mages wielding them are sitting ducks. In any case, for better or worse, it sounds like it'll be interesting at least.

And...other stuff...once I get my plat in Re;Birth 2, I'll probably dig up Soul Sacrifice and transfer to Delta.

Good luck with the boss, and the aftermath lol.

I beat it...

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(will do a proper reply tomorrow)

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Did you cry all the tears? Persona QQ?

In other news (kinda funny after my purchase of Soul Sacrifice Delta, depending on how you think about it) - Bloodborne Expansion confirmed, which pretty much means almost-inevitable repackaged Bloodborne G confirmed. Score for not jumping on the Bloodborne Bandwagon.

Heh, I wonder if they'll ever release a Souls collection. Lol - 2020 - Project Morpheus-compatible 4K-quality Souls Collection remaster on proprietary holodisc exclusive to PS4 or exclusive launch title for PS5, if Sony gets their **** together.

Small Persona,, very sads:

Splatoon was a good idea, and it may be a major hit.

The idea you bring up of pockets of gamers wanting innovation is kind of the key here. Pockets, not 12 million copies. Nintendo might need to sell stuff too, but even with low numbers, they try to innovate. When they do, it hurts big time, because pockets don't matter in the grand scheme, unfortunately.

Finals are never the norm...

Yeah wow, you just created a cash cow Microtransaction game without even trying. That'd make bank. Poor Stella if she was downgraded that far.

Nothing is a fishing game unless it involves Big the Cat and a stupid fishing pole peripheral. Now that's fishing!

Wait.. now Nobunaga's Ambition sounds familiar as a game... but I've never seen it before? Waat.

I dunno, it sounds pretty inclusive to me. And making strong weapons have huge penalties... seems to be against the point of the stronger weapons. Aren't they just supposed to be end-game weapons to not fight the same enemy 3 times before one of you dies? Typical RPG progress.


Anyway, all the reply stuff out of the way:
I ended up spending way too much time this week finishing up Skyrim. I wanted to remove it off my backlog for good, and I managed to do so last night. 100% achievements is just stupid. I finished everything long before getting a Legendary Dragon fight, so I spent a good few hours farming from 66 to 78 to make them start spawning. Thank god Illusion levels amazingly fast when using Muffle.

Anyway: Summer gaming plan:

Skyrim 100% (done)
Persona Q (100%)?
Monster Hunter
Maybe an MMO (TERA)?
Freedom Planet 100% (before SGDQ 2015)
Finish my Borderlands 2 run on PC (100%)?
Earthbound
Finish my (Bravely) second Bravely Default run (100%)?
Probably some Payday 1 and 2 since I haven't robbed many banks for awhile.

Anything else I add.

Funny Bunny Persona Feels:

Heh, you make a decent point about pockets of gamers, but I still say it's not quite so simple. It can go multiple ways. One complete failure from one pocket's interests can go nowhere, while another particular brand or innovation that interests another pocket can be a major trendsetter. Of course, one of the real problems is qualifying innovation, because there are multiple candidate definitions for that concept as well. But in a way you are kind of just reiterating my point; there isn't necessarily a problem with innovation in games or gamers' interests so much as there is a massive industrial crisis that has been getting worse over the years. The constant pressure to appeal to wider groups or else hike up prices to get greater returns from a relatively smaller groups constantly gets greater, and creative risks in big-budget games get more costly. Meanwhile, one of the real jokes is that Microsoft and Sony fail at innovating (and/or imitating Nintendo) frequently for their parts in the mix, but each of them can afford to hemorrhage money and use their other domains for enough profit to stay afloat. But big fat meh, in the end, I suppose. At the risk of oversimplifying things, I guess it would be more straightforward to simply say that I take issue with the ~gamers don't want innovation~ argument at its core because innovation isn't something that you can fully account for by taking a historical perspective; by its very nature, innovation necessarily refers to some futuristic potential or qualities, so it is a bit of a paradox to say gamers don't want something that they don't even know about yet. And beyond that, again, the broad, all-encompassing use of the term ~gamers~ is kinda meh, because something doesn't need to appeal to everyone or even the majority to make a respectable profit.

But meh...

"created a cash cow Microtransaction game without even trying"
>lol @ the redundancy

B-but...animal crossing...
And MH4U plesioth lol.

In terms of ~recent~ releases, I suppose Nobunaga's Ambition might sound familiar to you as a game because Pokemon Conquest was actually Nobunaga's Ambition x Pokemon, and I remember letting that game more or less destroy a good chunk of one of my summers (I enjoyed it so much, but I hated the way they structured the game...like...imagine having to play half a game a dozen times or more in variant NG+-esque modes before you can play the actual campaign and real NG in all its glory).

As for Fire Emblem weapons - ah...I just realized I forgot to mention the other aspect of the weapon system overall: they are getting rid of durability, so there will no longer be that fundamental strategic difference of having significantly limited uses of higher-tier weapons, and in terms of weapon economy, it'll basically turn managing your funds for weapons into a one-and-done-per-character affair. On the flipside, now that all weapons are going to have infinite uses, they're overhauling the stats to effectively redistribute the benefits/penalties of using higher-tier weapons so that you'll still have to make similar strategic choices about whether to go all out with the most expensive stuff you have gotten your hands on, or go for the benefits of slightly lower-tier options. Meanwhile, from what I've seen, most of the ~changes~ will still be in line with the ~usual~ penalties of higher-tier weapons seen in other games - e.g. being heavier and slightly reducing your speed and evasion (and by extension, possibly preventing you from having any chance to get a double-attack in). Things like that... It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

---

Heh - all the backlogs. I'm not sure if I'll ever get back to Skyrim, at this rate.

Speaking of accomplishments and getting all achievements/trophies, yesterday Stella finally cleared the last of her dungeons (all 10000 floors, on her second ~13 hour attempt). So w00t - "Gamindustri's Ultimate Savior: You played so much, everyone now agrees that Nepgear is a good main character, too!" Fun stuff all around, and I actually got the plat before getting my characters to level 999 this time lol.

I don't really have a summer gaming plan, in part because lol - me and plans, and also in part because I sort of expect my current games and preorders/anticipated releases to more or less fall in line as they will without me really needing to ~plan~ anything. I mean, in terms of upcoming releases, Splatoon comes out in a week, Steins;Gate might come out in June, and I have Lost Dimension for July (and I'll probably get Ar nosurge Plus in July too), so I already have at least ~one major title per month to look forward to~.

Meanwhile, now that I've plat'd Re;Birth 2, I'll probably start up Soul Sacrifice Delta, and I'm also juggling Hotaru no Nikki on the side. I've been powering through Record Breaker, but considering all the routes of the first game and the length/content of the second part that they added in, that has plenty of potential for time. And of course, at some point I intend to actually get back to playing MH4U, and of course Bayo 1&2 on Wii U.

If I somehow have any time for gaming over this summer beyond the games mentioned above, I also have a half-played run of Earthbound I might get back to on the Wii U, and then there's Advance Wars and Wonderful 101 from Club Nintendo that I haven't even cracked into yet. It would also be nice to get back to Ni no Kuni and finish it off before the summer is over. Meanwhile, it has been just long enough since I've played a Zelda game that I might actually get around to playing Skyward Sword again. Could also continue my run of Nocturne. Yup, those are probably the major highlights of games I might be playing this summer. I suppose if I get really bored, I might actually finish my run of Dark Souls 2, if only to get it out of the way...

In other news...w00t - a single session Splatoon Global Testfire in...roughly 4 hours unless my timing is off.

Heh - speaking of MMOs, Blade & Soul is actually getting localized. Interesting stuff.

ALL OF THE YES. Pre-ordered it in a heartbeat.

Spoiler:

Same, I got right to it. Nice to see they're also doing a proper 2-CD release with tons of songs instead of the usual ~short selection~ promo CD they've been doing with several releases recently. The pricetag is a bit steep, but those are a lot of premiums, especially when you consider the fact that a lot of other companies would be charging 0.99 per costume for that DLC.

Speaking of orders - lawl - I wonder if Amazon can actually handle it today. I mean, it's Amazon - you'd think they can handle the servers...but maybe there will be an overload of traffic from the sheer amiibo demand. I'm hoping to get Lucina, Robin, and yes...the Splatoon triple pack today, although the more cynical part of me suspects that even if I don't miss the window, a bunch of scalpers with proxies, scripts, and far more processing power than this little laptop will have their way with the bulk of the amiibos.

If Persona DAN can't get me to get a VITA... nothing will. I feel so shameful I won't... but I have too much else to play.

Which I shirked all responsibility for FF14... I no life'd so hard, I made it to 44 in a week. I might hit 50 even. I also have a 16 Conjuror, some leveled Gatherers, a 15 Marauder, and a few other 10s.

HELP! SOS SOS!

lol - Lost. That's what you get for giving FFXIV a chance.

As for P4DAN, I figured that P4G > P4DAN in terms of ~if that can't make me get a Vita, nothing will~ lol.

In other news, I'm calling shenanigans on Amazon's amiibo sale right here and now. I actually made it to checkout on Lucina, hesitated a couple seconds when I noticed they were still trying to charge me a shipping fee despite the amiibos supposedly being prime eligible, and of course - in my reluctance to be price gouged for >$20, I was treated to an error update notifying me that the item I was about to check out was no longer available from the seller, and of course has been moved to my ~saved for later~ list. All the shenanigans. I refuse to pay >RRP for any amiibo, and that includes outstanding shipping fees.

As for gaming, I've been powering through Record Breaker. I'm on my NG+ run of the Septentrione (~vanilla~) arc, and once I finish blitzing it, I'll actually move on ahead and check out the (new) Triangulum story. On a sidenote, Lost - Record Breaker has Lucifrost! All the yes. I'm also pretty sure it has a hidden anti-almighty, much like the original.

I hit 50 this morning, and am ready for the final mission...

Well, this is a cheaper price, and is a VIta bundle so...

That is kinda... really bad Anubis. Did you try contacting Amazon for the future purchases of Amiibo?

I will hopefully finish the main story of FF14, and then go play Persona or MH. I wanna get this first part of the game officially over and I'll feel much better.

Congrats lol. I've been tempted to get FFIV, but I'm not doing PS3, and the other day, I tried to play Tribes: Ascend on my computer - I lasted about 10 minutes in target practice mode before my computer's failsafe went off and automatically shut down. At the time, the keyboard surface was also almost hot enough to burn - so yeah, that's pretty much where I am in terms of PC gaming right now. In theory, all I need is to replace the dead battery pack and maybe buy a new fan and/or cooling system, but meh...

Meh, I kinda gave up on amazon after missing the Robin window completely. Meanwhile, amazon actually did do the ~right~ thing with regard to Lucina, because a while after that, they were like ~oh, if you are a prime member who got charged shipping on any of the amiibos, just click this link here and we'll get you your refund immediately - that was an error~ - although admittedly, the more spiteful side of me feels like every ****er who agreed to pay RRP+shipping for Lucina should have to ****ing pay RRP+shipping - they saw the price and agreed without hesitation to pay, and they're getting their limited-supply products as a result. As far as I'm concerned, doing the ~right thing~ in terms of customer service under these circumstances is just a massive FU to everyone who tried to purchase one. You know what would be the ~right thing~ - if Amazon calculated the amount of time I spent on the site yesterday and paid me at least minimum wage.

But meh. More amiibo rants. On the plus side, I did at least manage to get the Splatoon triple-pack, which is arguably the best value of amiibos on the market in terms of price and video game content. So there's that. It was pretty hilarious watching that triple pack double in price the second it sold out even though the inkling boy and inkling girl were still available separately.

In other news:
*Bloodstained officially coming to the best next-gen (or is it current gen now) console.
*Monster Hunter X. Lawl, MHVII is the best - Cloud and Sephiroth ftw.
*Fire Emblem is going to have a ****ing village-building system. All the yes. I love custom worlds/town development.

Meanwhile Lost, it turns out I'm actually pretty decent at Splatoon. I've been regularly holding my own against people ranked 5-10 levels ahead of me, I MVP more often than not, and my team wins more often than not. I can also objectively say that my contributions have been legit game-changers in close matches, since I've had plenty of moments of taking out 2-4 enemies and covering heaps of ground in the last 30 seconds of a match when everyone else was struggling to do so. Heh - I'm actually considering finding some regulars and playing Splatoon competitively, but I'm waiting until I'm level 20 and have every weapon unlocked so I can really have a better idea of what I favor. I'll leave the rest of my thoughts (e.g. favorite weapons/equipment skills for the Splatoon thread). That said - I suppose I will note here that Single Player was incredible, and I'm also highly looking forward to seeing people speed-run it. Would it be a huge surprise if I said that Splatoon offers better parkour than Mirror's Edge?

I thought I was going to talk about some other stuff, but I guess maybe that's all for now?

I've been playing Thief (2014), and have very mixed feeling about it. On the one hand it looks nice, has a couple of fun thieving missions (mostly optional sub-quests) and has extremely nice custom difficulty settings, while on the other everything is either awful, just broken, or just out of place in a Thief game. Focus abilities? Garrett isn't magic - that destroys the real magical feeling when you pull off something great using only the mechanics everyone else is using.

The worst aspect is jointly broken/shite sound design, and terrible story telling. It's just a lacklustre story altogether, with characters so bland I'd bet they taste of cardboard. For me, this is the weakest of the Thief games by miles, and not even fit to clean Dishonored's boots. It'll be off my hard drive as soon as this last level is over, and won't be coming back.