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The gameplay feel of 999 (and I assume VLR, haven't played that one) is definitely not like Dangan Ronpa but the story certainly has a similar tone to it so I do think they're worth a go.

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Just beat Danganronpa after like 4 days of rabid consumption.

 

Really excited to play this. I picked it up based solely on the art style and I've only heard good things. I feel like it's a game I need to sit down, plug in my headphones and play with 100% of my attention on it. I just don't have the time to do that right now. 

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I watched the anime of Danganronpa last year. Is it still worth playing?

 

That's a hard one... the story was definitely a huge part of my enjoyment of that game, but from everything I've heard the anime leaves out a lot of the details of the game. I actually just got the animation since I enjoyed the game so much, so maybe I'll make an attempt to burn through it a bit to get an idea of whether or not it ruins the game experience outright. Also, if you have any interest in Danganronpa 2 (and the subsequent 2 games that might come out in the West, who knows?) it might be a good idea to play the first to glean some details that might help you understand the universe as a whole.

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That's a hard one... the story was definitely a huge part of my enjoyment of that game, but from everything I've heard the anime leaves out a lot of the details of the game. I actually just got the animation since I enjoyed the game so much, so maybe I'll make an attempt to burn through it a bit to get an idea of whether or not it ruins the game experience outright. Also, if you have any interest in Danganronpa 2 (and the subsequent 2 games that might come out in the West, who knows?) it might be a good idea to play the first to glean some details that might help you understand the universe as a whole.

 

That's cool. For me my main point of contention for the anime was the sudden and kinda insane world lore they threw on at the end, which I didn't quite believe, as well as the death sequences, which felt out of place and unnecessary. as well as hard to watch. From my understanding, they were from the game, which is why they looked so different. Also the ending felt rushed somewhat. I do really want to play the game though, regardless, and I hear the 2nd one is good too.

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I suspect that the endgame world lore dump was a lot more gradual in the game considering there was a lot of gameplay where you roamed around to get all of the information that led to those revelations. Also, it's hinted throughout the game so I was expecting some kind of megaton at some point.

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Ew, I just looked at the animation, and the art style is more the standard anime style rather than that odd, different look in the game. Persona 4 does that as well. I love the character portraits, but the anime cut scenes completely change the look of the characters to a standard style. 

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Now for more games that don't really fit in this topic because they are not really games which can exactly be completed, but are still things that i have played recently and have played a lot of, and starting out with a couple of party games that were thrown at me and have turned out to be things i enjoy.

 

Mount your Friends is real, real dumb in a way i can't help but enjoy with a goofy grin. I kind of love how opposite the absurdity of the depicted event is a musical accompaniment grows increasingly dramatic as a match lingers on, all while surrounded by a loose set of presentational trappings one would expect of a televised sporting event. It frames itself as competitive QWOP, in essence, and is pretty much guaranteed to end every match with held breath and shocked gasps.

 

100% Orange Juice is not a thing i would have ever bought for myself. A Mario Party-esque digital boardgame with a crossover cast from a handful of mostly unfamiliar japanese indie games and the most anime-ass art possible. Oh god though, i keep coming back to it, i can't stop.

 

So you pick a character and that character has a special ability and a series of stat modifiers, and you're set out on a gameboard with 3 other players. Rolling dice to move around, landing on star tiles, battle tiles, draw tiles, home tiles, and various other tiles. The goal in any given match is, initially, just to collect some stars, but once you've collected your stars, you have to land on a home tile and turn them in. Then you choose your next goal, either collecting more stars, or winning battles. Oh, yeah, there's also a simple rpg battle system in here. Oh, those draw tiles? It's also a deck building game. (With no freemium hooks, somewhat surprisingly, everything is gradually unlocked as you keep playing aside from a small handful of DLC characters. Also, everybody's cards are mixed into a single draw pile, so the trick is finding cards that uniquely synergize with your character's stats and special ability.)

The game goes on like that, people fighting eachother, fighting enemies on the board, collecting stars, spending stars to use cards, losing and gaining stars in fights, setting new goals for themselves when they hit previous ones. (In general, it's easier to gain stars than rack up fight wins, but you can lose stars just as easily.)

Speaking of those home tiles, your own home tile is the only one you can choose to stop on when passing by, but any of them work if you can get lucky enough to land on it. If you're having horrible luck, not being able to turn in an objective doesn't prevent you from gaining stars and wins well above the requirement, you can end up with well over 200 stars despite lagging behind in objective completion, and then just need to hit home tiles a few times in a row to win. In that way, it's kind of what i like about the game, you're given a lot of flexibility in how you go about winning, and it seems to kind of give you a lot of room to course correct if things go wrong due to the horrible specter of RNG.

There's some real weirdness in this game though, you apparently have to play a solo mode to unlock characters, but the "story" mode AI's appear to play with weighted dice rolls, and this kind of aggressive cheating is not fun to bang your head against. On the other hand, i've seemingly unlocked some characters by just playing online, so i don't know how much truth there is to that requirement. Also, a lot of the "shop" unlocks don't seem to do what they're advertised to do. The game generally just has a super confusing progression path and i have no idea what is happening ever. (A lot of things in the shop are also tied up behind level requirements that you can seemingly only raise through by playing online, either against randoms or with friends.)

Still, kinda love it.

 

Now the one that was just for me -

 

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend's Steam version is a suprisingly solid and serviceable PC port of my personal favorite fighting game. (Aside from the incredibly perplexing issue of there being literally no way to disable the in-game voice chat while in an online lobby, meaning that short of pulling the plug on your mic, you can't stop broadcasting out through the game. It's basically the only thing marring an otherwise phenomenal online experience, as ArcSys did some kind of crazy sorcery with the netcode used in this engine.) Saw a lot of people bitching that it wasn't Chrono Phantasma being released on Steam, but i think there's value to be had in having the final revision of a stellar fighting game prior to it going through some fairly dramatic and in-flux redesigns.

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I recently beat Quest for Infamy, the last Phoenix Studios (the new Sierra?) game for me to play, since Quest for Glory was never my favorite, so I wasn't too excited about it, I choose the magic user path, which gave a bunch of quests for spell ingredients, which was pretty fun.

 

I loved the lore and the land, well, I didn't like the maps of the main city, but still, I love the game, and while I could see what was coming in most cases a mile away, it was a joyful ride!  It might actually be my favorite Pheonix Studio game!

 

I then played... Monster Monpiece... which I heard was a "Moemon" card game with a gimmick I should have expected.... it is a game from Japan. It's a shame, because I LOVED the card game aspect of the game.

 

It's a real shame, because probably the "gimmick" (monster girls and touch screen, do I need to spell it out?) is going to drive everybody away. Sure the AI can be steamrolled once you have a good card deck, but the final battle had me on the ropes and was actually exciting.

 

So yeah, fun card game, but you have to fondle a kobold's butt to level up your cards... Now I know what it had no previews...  <_<

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I'm trying to play all the games I bought in the last Steam sale and one of those was E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy. It's strange on many levels. The world it takes place in is strange as hell, a lot of the systems in the game are strange but the most strange thing about it is how it manages to be good and awful at the same time. It's hard to compare this game to anything else, it has parts that remind me of Deus Ex, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Crysis but at the same time it's nothing like those games. It's got the freedom and systems complexity of Deus Ex, the player empowerement of Crysis and the loose structure and jankiness of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. That's the good part, at its heart it's a fun game with interesting combat. At times it's got fantastic atmosphere, but then it throws something completely out of place at you. The writing tries to be serious and then it gives you conversation options that make Duke Nukem look mature. It's worth playing though.

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I think I may have said this before, but "tough decision maker" is officially a genre now.

 

The Detail is a low budget game of this "genre", that doesn't bother to give you time to gain any affection for your character and fails to make it feel like the decisions are that tough, the narrative is very ham-fisted.

 

I probably beat the game in an hour and it was PAINFUL. I've never played such a short game that was so hard to sit through...  :tdown:

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Pretty much done with Dragon Age: Origins, now.

 

Told Morrigan to shove her demon-baby up her arse, and then called her a bitch, which felt good. This has the dual benefit of denying Alistair some freaky sex, which amuses me no end. I bet he's never done it with a girl.

 

Edit: And already I'm on the Dragon Age Wiki to see what would have happened if I'd convinced him to go through with it. Does it factor into the later games in the series, anyone?

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Saint's Row: Gat out of Hell :tmeh:

A standalone SR4 thingy. It's sort of a short version of SR4, just a different skin over various things. It's quite short, especially if you do not do the optional side missions (read: city takeover challenges).

I hope Volition continues to the more "normal" Saint's Row world like SR3. Over the top, dumb and funny action. Drop the super powers stuff.

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I was going to say that I personally hoped they would work on a proper sequel to Red Faction: Guerrilla, but then I remembered they don't do Red Faction anymore... Well, they could still do that kind of thing again, right? With the explodey buildings? Hmmm.

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Nordic Games bought it and I don't think they have the money to make AAA games. They probably just want to re-releases and stuff.

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Yes, I know.

 

I mean Volition could make a brand new game with the same ideas driving it. I don't think they will, but.

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I am so bummed out I've beaten Sound Shapes, I can't remember the last time I was legitimately sad when a game ended.  :tup:

 

It's kinda like the musical levels in Rayman Legends, except not as crazy. You're a sticky orb that collects coins that create the music in the game, the environment and enemies also seem to move with the rhythm of the music and the game was pure joy until it was over....

 

This might have been the first time I listened to Deadmau5, but I'm sure I've heard him in another game, but since this is mostly a musical game you do have time to listen to it.

 

Like I said, I was bummed out when it was over, enough to play user created levels, which didn't sound right and gave me a headache, the "no death mode" isn't that musical, so I'm not compelled to play it either...

 

The funny part is that I bought this game on a whim when the PSN had the "10% off" deal. Best impulse buy ever?

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Finally, after first getting an Xbox 360 because my computer couldn't run it, and buying it three separate times because the disk broke, then the game of the year edition came out, I have beaten Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I did most of the DLC, completed both the Warrior and Mage guilds, and of course the main quest. I had a couple of fairly broken swords at the end and also enough life to just run through all the oblivion gates without fighting anything, which is good because I'd already clocked 110 hours on that save and 30+ on two others and I didn't want to take my time with it anymore. I just wanted it done.

 

It's still an awesome game, but also evidence that there really can be too much of a good thing. Way way too much, in fact.

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Finally, after first getting an Xbox 360 because my computer couldn't run it, and buying it three separate times because the disk broke, then the game of the year edition came out, I have beaten Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I did most of the DLC, completed both the Warrior and Mage guilds, and of course the main quest. I had a couple of fairly broken swords at the end and also enough life to just run through all the oblivion gates without fighting anything, which is good because I'd already clocked 110 hours on that save and 30+ on two others and I didn't want to take my time with it anymore. I just wanted it done.

 

It's still an awesome game, but also evidence that there really can be too much of a good thing. Way way too much, in fact.

 

When I did my I'm-finally-gonna-beat-ES4:O run-through, I turned the difficulty down to nothing in the Oblivion Gates.  That game is so much more pleasant when you get to demolish everything in the garish, repetitive areas. 

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I was aware that was an option, but I was able to just run through pretty much everything anyway. The only area I had problems with was trying to take back Kvatch so I could get the help of an extra soldier for the great gate, but that wasn't strictly necessary.

 

The FAQ I read before the final couple of missions talked about all these fancy strategies on how to best get past the boss and into the chapel. When the time finally came I just walked past him, no problem at all, and ended up having to wait in the chapel for the key characters to arrive and start the final sequence.

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Dewar, you picked the wrong guilds: it's the thieves guild and assassins guild that offer the best storylines. Go back and finish the real game.

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I've played through the Hexcells series recently, which are an absolutely delightful set of games. They are Minesweeper type puzzles, but are made in such a way that there is no requirement to guess. They begin quite simple, but certainly the later puzzles can be very difficult, especially if you are trying to do them perfectly with no mistakes. The soundtrack is also incredibly soothing, leading to a very zen-like state when playing. John Walker of RPS absolutely loves them, and has included them in the their site's GOTY for the past two years and I can see why. Definite recommendation  :tup:

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Dewar, you picked the wrong guilds: it's the thieves guild and assassins guild that offer the best storylines. Go back and finish the real game.

 

Agreed, Dark Brotherhood > Thieves >>> Mages >>> Knights of the Nine > Fighters = Arena

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*shrug* I got half way through the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild and neither of them interested me. To be fair, neither did the Mage or Fighter's guild, I just happened to be a couple of missions from completing them the last time I quit playing. I don't really like sneaking around in Elder Scrolls, it's really hard to tell what's going to see you and what isn't until it's too late.

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