Topic: What (Non-PS4) game are you playing??

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy That sucks. You can't just reset the password for your American account?

The worst save data flub I ever had was when one of my PS1 memory cards just... died... and took a 47 hour save file of FF7 along with it. I couldn't even look at the console for months.

Unfortunately not (RE: Huang Long). Orochi was pretty easy, though, once you learn his pattern. He uses up his MP quickly, so if you keep null mute up on your character, he can't do that MP sapping thing he would otherwise, and he also can't remove debuffs if you decide to Debilitate him over and over. Obviously that makes his accuracy absolute crap, meaning the physical skills he's forced to use after that don't hit half the time. It's pretty fun just backing him into a corner with skills like that.

On the plus side, even having lost hours and hours of progress like that, I'm still pretty overleveled and am carrying three million macca in my wallet. Is there any benefit to having a lot of macca when you end the game and go to DDS2, or would spending it on mantras be better?

I made the account in haste as I never expected I'd actually get anything important for it @Ralizah (I think I made it for a demo or something) so I used a throwaway email account that I also forgot the password for. So no It's lost to the ages sadly

I've made a new american account since that I made sure I wrote down everything for it so this doesn't happen again... I'll get them back someday

If you have at least a million Macca (I think?) on you at the end of the game when you play DDS 2 you get $20,000 to start with rather then $10,000 when Serph sells his tag ring.

Also there's bonus stats for the party depending on how many mantras you master for them. +5 for everything is the max... I'm not sure how exactly it's calculated though

Still annoying as heck Orochi gets 7 turns though. Abad statting round can seriously mess ypu up, especially if you weren't prepared.

There's something like that you can do to the Demi Fiend or rather his Pixie.

It's called the Redstar strategy if I remember right and you have to get through the Super bosses accompanying demons til you get to Pixie and CuChulainn (I think?)

You keep casting Debilitate and eventually she runs out of mp using Dekunda... and rather then use Recarmdra which either uses 1hp or sp she'll spend every turn trying to use Dekunda even though she's got not enough Mp.

If the Demi Fiend manages to get a crit though whilst you're trying to waste her mp (Which is ridiculously likely as he crits like crazy even with Null Crit on) then she get's a second move and'll probably use it and negate everything you did

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Email accounts can also be recovered with enough effort (I've had to daisy-chain a few sets of missing password requests myself over the years to gain access to stuff), but it sounds like you've moved on.

Alright, I'll be sure to keep at least a million on me. In the meanwhile, right before the final boss, I'll use the 30 noises or so I have to make my MC even more hilariously overpowered!

It's nice to know there's a way to manage the hilarious OP superboss, but I still can't comprehend fighting him.

Oh, btw, considering our conversation recently, this is a bizarre coincidence:

https://nintendoeverything.com/monster-rancher-port-heading-t...

Not sure I want it on Switch, though. The disc swapping feature might have been a silly gimmick, but it was really, really cool!

Ha ha... I uhhhhhh found a video in which someone managed to beat the Demi Fiend at lvl 20...

The fight is over an hour and a half long @Ralizah ! :')

I also found this picture and it was SO cute

Gonna attempt the super boss in DDS2? Ya only have to play the game on the hard mode to fight them!

If you had to scan discs for the monsters in Monster Rancher... wouldn't be more of a hassle having to reprogram that feature to work for switch carts or something rather then just porting it to the PS4?

Maybe, but look at some of those maxed out stats! That's nowhere close to a normal level 20 character.

You know, this picture would actually fit well with the vaguely 'love and friendship'-esque vibe of SMT IV: Apocalypse.

Only if it's an Invisible Demons mode!

Well, when they ported the series to NDS, they changed it up so that you scrawled different patterns on the touchscreen to make different monsters, so they'll likely replicate that here.

...

Yeah, they really should have just remastered Monster Rancher 2 for PS4 and made it compatible with DVDs and Blu-Rays.

The description of the vid seems to go into detail and apparently character level has a bunch of hidden stats attached to it @Ralizah.

So whilst they may have 99 in all stats.... They're still taking way more damage then if they were lvl 99 as well. Goes to show how OP the super boss is if ya can't be a madman like some people are and do a Lvl 1 run of it!

Seeing as I havent played SMT IV or the sequel I'm not quite sure what you mean there to be honest... I know there's a DLC fight with the previous SMT protagonists vs Stephen but I assume you mean it's more of a general theme the game has rather then pertaining to the Demi Fiend!

... I'm never gonna hear the end of that am I?

... So if this Monster Rancher port doesn't come to ps4... I'm borrowing your copy of 2 now you've gotten me interested yeah?

And I'm nearly done with Jade Cocoon. At the Dark Spider Forest (or Spider Forest of the Netherworld) and facing off against the various Earth Boss encounters

Shame you never get to fight a water one... I always wondered what doofy haircut it would have or how ridiculously long it's nose would be 😂

Well... Seeing as no-one else has posted in the topic it's my first double post... Sorry guys!

Having completed Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu I'm now playing the sequel, aptly named Jade Cocoon 2

...It's honestly quite jarring due to the very different (and more stategic) battle system, the tone and writing.

Also our new protagonist Kahu is voiced rather then Levant and his silentness in the prevous game

He's a wide eyed kid that heads to the temple (I assume the one in the moth forest from Jade Cocoon) and wants to be a cocoon master. Except it's been like hundreds of years and no one knows what that is anymore barring two people.

Kikinak (...With a not so hot new voice) and Levant

Yes... THAT Levant

He's immortal now thanks to the events of the first game but apparently aged to his 30's before the immortality decided to stop aging him?

Anyway Levant tells you there are no cocoon masters anymore... But Beast Hunters! Which is like a Super Hyper Cocoon Master says one of the npc's!

Just got my first Divine Beast (of the Mau line)

Well it's always given to you... But you get your second quite quickly afterwards! Being able to choose from either an Earth, Water, or Air beast.

I chose the Water one Slimich (Of the Slimy line)

Off to finish the rest of the tutorial... And kick start the plot proper!

I've been playing Persona 4 (Base version, not Golden) for the first time since high school. Been working on it for a couple months now, and currently just got Naoto as a party member. Gotta say, while I'm still enjoying the game, there are a few things I don't really like about it.

-Arcana Chance is so stupid. In Persona 3, you could play a similar card game to either get a weapon, extra EXP, a heal, extra money, or a persona. In 4, the card game is still around, only now you can either get a persona, a penalty in which you get denied any EXP and money from the battle, or neither. But after the card thing, Arcana Chance might pop up, which either gives a good or negative effect depending on the arcana (e.g. Judgement either restores or halves your SP). Considering how difficult P3 was if you didn't know what you were doing, extra rewards were appreciated after battles. While 4 is a bit easier, it can still punish you hard, and potentially getting penalized after a first is something I don't appreciate. Whenever it comes up, I just decline.

-Having to find a place to check the weather is a minor nag, but a weird choice considering you could previously see the whole calendar from the pause screen. It kinda makes sense, but it also means the deadlines are harder to tell until the week of.

-For a game about friendship, the main cast can be pretty dickish to each other. Yosuke used to be a favorite of mine, but depending on how he's written for the scene, he's either sympathetic, grounded, and competent, or a pervy loser. Sometimes he might be a sympathetic loser. He has moments where he's a nice character, like looking after Teddie and his general behavior towards the hero, but man, it is creepy as all hell that he bought bikinis for Yukiko and Chie without their consent, somehow knowing they'd fit them, and needing Kanji about his issues (No wonder Kanji's so insecure) doesn't help his look either. Chie I didn't really like to begin with, with her overreaction to Yosuke damaging her DVD, presumably by accident, mooching off him afterwards, and sticking him with the bill for Teddie's shopping, which made me swear off her. Teddie starts alright, but after a while his own perviness gets grating quick. Everyone else I'm ok with, unless there's a moment I forgot that would ruin their characters. I know that's only 3 out of 8, but with all the talk of how everybody's friends and seeing the above is pretty jarring, especially compared to the casts of 3 & 5. They had their moments too (The hot springs in 3, Ryuji's constant mistreatment in 5), but you could also see them grow as characters and bond, talk about themselves, and when everybody's friends in the ending, it feels natural. Aside from Chie and Yukiko's established friendship, I haven't gotten anything on that level so far with the party. I'm sure I'm judging too early, and probably forgetting something (it's been almost a decade since my last playthrough), but it's been jarring so far.

Just to remind everybody I do like this game, this is what I like about it-

-The battles are still enjoyable, yet challenging. While P3's battles were balanced and more enjoyable than given credit for, you can't beat controlling the whole party.

-While they still have randomly generated floors (barring a few), having differently themed dungeons is far better than P3's Tartarus. Those few floors that aren't randomized do keep them interesting enough. The result is that compared to 3, the game feels less grindy to me. The fatigue feature from 3 was also removed, meaning your dungeon crawling is thankfully only limited by your SP limits.

-The soundtrack. Dear lord it hasn't gotten old. The opening theme is perfect to introduce the game, and it helps sell the more homey feel of Inaba. This is essentially the soundtrack of catchiness incarnate. And of course, "I'll Face Myself" is still a great boss track.

-The tone in general is refreshing for a Persona game. If you play this after 3 or 5, you might think you popped the wrong game in. The other games were undoubtedly heavy, and while there's still heavy moments, this game is much lighter than the others.

-Even though I already know the answers, the story does a great job at selling a mystery surrounding Inaba's murders and the killer responsible. I'm a sucker for a good mystery, and at times it had me briefly forget the killer's identity.

All in all, while it ain't quite as great as I remember, it's still been a good time playing through this again.

@RogerRoger I loved reading your KotOR impressions. I’ve never played the game, but it’s interesting to hear of the game’s early hours though the eyes of another first-timer. I hope the game settles into something even remotely approaching its vaunted reputation.

While I was waiting on my copy of Astral Chain to arrive I caved & bought the Smash "Fighter's Pass". Got me back into spirit hunting & classic mode, so that's good.

Then of course Astral Chain, which has been good so far. I actually really like that there's chances to explore the levels for secrets at times, rather than nothing but wall to wall action.

Playing through Half-Life 1 for the first time. There's almost something magical about the game, as it seems to know exactly how long I want to play it each time. When I'm in the mood for a quick play, the next chapter ends up being nice and short. When I'm in the mood for a longer session, then the next chapter turns out to be a big one. So even though the game lets you save anywhere, I've generally been quitting the game upon reaching the end of a chapter.

I'm rather far into it now, about two-thirds or three-quarters of the way there. I was slow getting into the game, but rather enjoying it now. The visuals haven't exactly aged well, and some aspects of the gameplay and combat gets a bit iffy, but overall the game is still fun to play.

@crimsontadpoles I love Half-Life 1, I don’t think I’ve played it for 15 years. Have you played number 2? It is better, and still really holds up..

@kyleforrester87 Not yet. I picked it up in a Half-Life bundle during a Steam sale a while ago, so I'll be sure to give Half-Life 2 a try eventually.

So, I'm playing Celeste on the Switch, and in the third chapter I come across this little hidden room with a computer that has a simplified retro version of the game on something called a Pico-8. Ended up spending 45 minutes or so completing it before resuming the actual level. Very cute little secret.

@Kidfried Ah. Nice. So I assume what I found in the secret room is the full game?

I'll just play it via Celeste if I ever have the desire to boot it up again. Keyboard controls are borderline impossible for me to get the hang of, and I find joy2key to be a bit finnicky for my liking.

In addition to Persona 4, I've been playing through Super Mario Bros. 3 via the NES Classic. It's been a very long time since I've put time into it, but man, it's just as enjoyable as I remember it. I also completed SMB 2 and Mega Man 2, which I did enjoy, but I had a hard time getting my thoughts on both games together for a mini review.

On my 3DS, I'm still playing Dragon Quest VII. I probably would be closer to beating it if I spent any consistent amount of time on my 3DS. I'm close to 60 hours spent, and I have no idea how close I am to the end.

Been a while since I updated my progress in Jade Cocoon 2. Partially cus I got side tracked a bit by other games but also cus you had your family holiday @Ralizah (Hope you don't mind me tagging you) and seeing as you were interested/didn't even know there was a second game I held off til your return. But admittedly mainly side tracked

I alluded that Jade Cocoon 2 is quite different to Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu in my review of it. The combat being the big difference with the introduction of the Beast Amulet.

This might be good diagram to help me describe the battle system. Red being fire, green earth, blue water and yellow wind.

There's eight slots on the amulet and every turn you can switch which side of the amulet is in front. The ones in front will attack and the rest will recover mp.

For example if you put the fire side in front (Fire/Earth, Fire centre & Fire/Air) and have all three slots full, then all three Divine Beasts will attack the opposing side.

With Kahu in the middle of the beast amulet, if the centre Divine Beast dies (or faints) then Kahu will potentially get hit then he loses a shield. The corner ones don't matter beside you losing out on attacks/meat shields.

You can't choose where your Divine Beast attacks though, it's apparently determined by the computer with what skill you're using and where it's placed. Even skills are used automatically, your beast only attacks with the skill/s they have til they run out of mp for a regular attack.

You start with two slots on the beast amulet and two shields and can get up to seven slots and five shields during the main game by doing advancement tests which consist of three matches. The 8th slot is unlocked in the post game.

That also means that merging acts rather differently too.

Unlike the first game there's no proportions of elements, alteration of stats or even change of appearance when you merge. The divine beast simply gets either a move from one of the other elements or the skill they aiready know is overwritten.

Well... That's not entirely true. Your Divine Beasts have four set forms. Larval, Adult, Evolved & Most Evolved.

At the start your beasts can only go from Larval to Adult.

Each time you merge a beast a portion of an evolution bar is filled up depending on the element and species of the beast used in the merging. A Fire Og merged with another Og will get more then if you merge a beast with a wind Alco or earth Gara. You can't merge it with a water Silmey. (Basically any monster can't merge with the element on the opposing side of the beast amulet)

The beasts can only get to level 20 before they need to be merged as they can't level anymore before returning back to a larval at level one. Though they'll have higher stats and take longer to level up on the second cycle and so on.

All the beasts you merge come from cocoons or seed beasts that you find through the four elemental dungeons. The higher ranked the seed beast the more money it costs to merge and more it'll fill up the evolution bar?

So there's a constant re-rolling of your divine beasts, finding which beasts and combinations work and with the beast amulet you'll be constantly switching in battle. Plus the fact there's divine beasts on the corner slots that need skills for the other elements... It's much more strategic then the first game.

As for actual progress I'm on the third floor of each of the four forests. (Each forest currently having four floors) The floors really starting to get pretty long now and the difficulty ramping up a bit...

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Why on Earth would I mind you tagging me?

Anyway, that battle system sounds pretty bizarre. I'm actually reminded of my experience with Yokai Watch. Probably the fact that they go out three at a time, and are positioned around the center of a magical device.

Also:

"Unlike the first game there's no proportions of elements, alteration of stats or even change of appearance when you merge. The divine beast simply gets either a move from one of the other elements or the skill they aiready know is overwritten."

That is... disappointing, to say the least. Half of the fun of monster collecting games that feature fusion or evolution or summoning systems is seeing what sort of new and weird thing comes out the other end. This sounds much less creative by comparison!

Ha ha I'm not too sure @Ralizah why you would... too polite for my own good at times 😅

I was quite disappointed too at first regarding the merging.

Sticking with the example in the previous post... A fire beast never loses a fire move (it's always overwritten and unable to learn water moves at all) it can only learn one additional skill from either earth or air.

If it has an earth and a fire move alraedy and you give it an air skill instead then the earth one is removed entirely and you have Fire and air instead.

Though usless unless it's on the fire, air corner to take advantage of both moves.

There are abilities your Divine beasts can learn too like immunity to sleeping, +20%hp, extra mp regeneration and so on.

Four can be learned before the first is overwritten and they're learnt from the various seed beasts you get by beating the Kalma (cursed divine beasts and are unlimted in use for merging)

So there is a level of customisation and you can alter stats... But the big brutey Og is never going to be that good of a spellcaster.

It's not AS flexible as Jade Cocoon 1 is, but you can do a lot of neat things with it. I know I've made it probably sound way more complicated then it is...

There's ten species of divine beasts overall with three lines/sub species to each species meaning there's 120 monsters overall if you're counting the 4 stages of evolution.

Plus you can get some rare eggs playing through the game. Palette swaps essentially with stuff like an earth og (instead of fire) or a fire alco (instead of air) etc.

So there is a decent amount of variety...

There's a little vid to show the battles a bit better. It's the random gameplay that comes on when you leave it on the title screen too long... Shows it adequetely and no spoilers either

Been playing alot of Call.of Duty Mobile then last few days mainly due to my hectic job schedule at the moment. For a mobile game it's not bad they did a great job of capturing the look and feel of Call of Duty games primary the original Modern Warfare and Black Ops games.

The maps are all well known maps, nothing new like Crash, Nuke Town, Standoff etc so its more like a CoD greatest hits. The controls being that they are touch screen took me a bit to get use as I don't play too many mobile games.

Weapons are a nice variety of weapons from the Modern Warfare and Black Ops series and the even have specialist weapons like the purifier and death machine from Black Ops 3.

Overall it's old school Call of Duty mobilized and it does scratch the Call of Duty itch nicely and matches are quick. Definitely a must play of you enjoy older CoD games.