The Official WTF are YOU playing right now thread

[RoninBuddha]

i've been busy with Breath of Fire 3 (PSone version), in fact i spent my whole saturday on that Game, straight! from 8am to 6pm, then 9pm to 3am again! easily one of my fave RPGs, considering im not fond of RPGs...

and a while ago, i decided to pump in Rez once again, i;'ve been playing Rez for almost 2 years now... yes, 2 years, on a monthly basis... one of my most fave games of all time... still trying to get 100% everything... damn Area 5 Shootdown!!!

[zinger]

Under Defeat - Better than I could ever have imagined. Feels a lot like Rayforce, but with a WWII theme and that rotation twist. Thank You G.Rev!

[DC906270-BIL]

im playing on rotation :

Under Defeat
Ibara
Metal Slug 1
Don Doko Don

[icycalm]

Rolling Thunder and Bubble Bobble.

The first is a lot harder than I remembered.

[Bighab]

Been playing Master of Monsters Genesis head to head with a friend. I also just finished Shining Force 3 US Saturn. I might start the Jpn Scene 2 next or try Dragon Force.

[Gaijin Punch]

Played Sakura Taisen 4, making that the last of the main games I needed to play. Took me a whopping 6.5 hours. A very strange format for the last game on the DC.

Now working on Eternal Mana (the first one) and will one day finish up my replaying of Shenmue 2. All the while, I'm still trying to clear 500 million on ESPGaluda 2.

[dai jou bu]

I've been trying to Shoot the Bullet. The casualty rate has been rather high. Then sometimes I go to The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil to see how much I've improved.

[DC906270-BIL]

still playing Ibara... have managed to get past my previous 'sticking point' and added +1m to my best score. i love it when that happens, makes all the hard play time pay off

[Gaijin Punch]

I beat Eternal Mana... there's a whole 2-3 hours of "gathering shit" you have to do after getting the last main ability. You can of course go straight to the last boss, but he'll likely kick your ass. I skipped a bunch of sidequests, so spent a good 5 hours on that too. Overall, there's more volume in the first than the 2nd, but the 2nd has some much added bonuses.

I 1CC'ed Gunstar Heroes, from the PS2 collection, so am relatively proud of that. I will work on Dynamite Headdy one day, but not now. I'm on Okami at the moment, and loving every minute of it. 17.5 hours into, so I figure I've got another 10-12.

I have 3 days off for Golden Week next week, not including the weekend. I am tempted to try to hack out the majority of one of my RPGs that I'm supposed to be playing. It would be between Tales of Destiny 2, Phantom Brave, or even Growlanser IV. I might just try to clear 500m on Galuda 2 though.

[SuperDeadite]

I'm an idiot -- I hit edit instead of quote and mangled your message. Sorry!

-GP

Growlanser IV: 2nd play as I managed to get the worst possible ending my first time through.

<snip>

Tales Of Destiny 2: been playing this one over the years off and on when I get bored, currently on my Mania playthrough.

<snip>

[Gaijin Punch]

Growlanser IV: 2nd play as I managed to get the worst possible ending my first time through.

How is this one? I've heard it is leaps and bounds over 2 and 3, which were definitely not impressive. Not only is there no roaming, but the whole crappy scaled characters against (admitedly ugly but) high res backgrounds just got to me. About how long is the game? I found the first one painfully long at 60+ hours.

Tales Of Destiny 2: been playing this one over the years off and on when I get bored, currently on my Mania playthrough.

Is this ToD2 Japanese, or Eternia? I liked the first one at a smidge over 30 hours. Fun battle system, although relatively easy. Is it about the same length?

[SuperDeadite]

How is this one? I've heard it is leaps and bounds over 2 and 3, which were definitely not impressive. Not only is there no roaming, but the whole crappy scaled characters against (admitedly ugly but) high res backgrounds just got to me. About how long is the game? I found the first one painfully long at 60+ hours.

Growlanser IV plays closest to the original, meaning the "to-scale" world map, and non-random dungeons make their return. The world map is smaller then Growlanser's though, so you don't spend as much time running around on like you do in first game. Also the annoying "Talk to King--->get letter--->give letter to Magic Academy guy--->get border pass-->finally get to new area" crap from the original is nowhere to be seen.

Also the old Master Point system to learn skills is completely gone. Now you need to equip gems in order to learn even basic skills. The whole game was reworked to make it impossible to break (unlike G2 and G3's easy as hell system) In fact they went a bit too far with it in my opinion because G4 is one hard game. Took me about 20 tries to take down the final boss, a lot of the event battles seemed to be designed just to screw with you, but damn they were fun.

Graphically, its the same style sprites on high-res prerendered backgrounds again like G2 and G3. However they look a lot better then before. They also redid all of the spell effects, and they are far improved over G2 and 3's. (Though some like Death still looked better in G1).

It took me about 30-40 hours for the first play. The game isn't too long, but its fun even though the difficulty really borders on insane at times. Also you get to make your fairy this time around so anyone that couldn't stand Tippy should go for much quieter and serious Type D-LN. I'd say G1 was the overal better game, but it restored my faith in Career Soft, and I'll be preordering G5 regardless of how it looks.

[SuperDeadite]

Is this ToD2 Japanese, or Eternia? I liked the first one at a smidge over 30 hours. Fun battle system, although relatively easy. Is it about the same length?

Yeah I have the real Japanese ToD2 for PS2. Its still the best Tales game in my opinion. Entire game runs at 60fps and is smooth and fluid. In battle sprites are large and nicely well animated, and the spells really look like they hurt. However the 3D world map looks rather crappy by today's standards.

They went nuts with the extras, Kyle gets 5 hiougis just for himself. The game does have a stamina bar thing that will be a pain in the ass at the start, but once you adjust to it, it feels natural. Also the zoning system tends to annoy people, but for the most part its not bad either. One of the nicest apects of the battle system is the ability to extend spells and techniques even longer by using "Action Enchants." This is also the only Tales game where even the spell casters learn some techs and can combo just as good as the fighters. Its fun to play as everyone, even Nanaly the archer.

Like all Tales games the plot is rather bad, ToD2 really focuses a lot on pleasing ToD1 fans more then anything else, but it didn't make me want to hurt myself like most Tales plots (Rebirth, and Legendia especially). The characters are great though, all 6 of them are hot-blooded in battle and it keeps things fun.

Finally the reason I can keep playing this one is the difficulty. ToD2 is quite challenging. Some bosses are especially cheap and auto-counter things like heal spells or item use. Even normal enemies will guard like crazy and you need to rely on your magic users to hit first and then combo like crazy while they are open just to survive on the harder difficulties. Every other Tales game will feel like a total push over after ToD2. Its a really difficult game, but its almost like a good shooter where you just keep comming back for more no matter how many times you get wasted. Overal its about 30 hours or so and moves really fast, if you like a good challenge I can't recommend it enough.

[Gaijin Punch]

Thanks for the info -- very informative. I will likely play ToD2 before Growlanser IV. Who knows if I'll squeeze either in in the near future, but hopefully. I guess we'll see soon enough though.

[SuperDeadite]

By some luck I was able to pick up a HiSaturn with VCD card off ebay for only $76 (shipping included) last week. So now everything I've been playing has gone on hold since I can finally play Lunar: SSSC (MPEG version) that I've been wanting to play for years. So far I'm really impressed, the cutscenes look amazingly good, totally kicks the crap out of the Playstation version. Its a real shame that Lunar 2 never got this treatment.

[Gaijin Punch]

Well, played Phantom Brave for about 5 hours and got sick of all the leveling up. Interesting game and system, but replaying stages (a lot) in a strategy RPG isn't my thing. Cutesy story.

I moved on to TOD2, but am a bit underwhelmed graphically. I can only think that the game was at some phase planned for the Playstation. If I'm not mistaken, (battles left aside) all characters are high res sprites (and pretty well animated I might add) on low-res backgrounds. Even the characters during the cut-scene chats are really fuzzy. Hard to believe Legendia was actually a step up in graphics department. It hasn't clicked yet, but I'm sure it will. So far, not bad, although you're right about the story.

[aerithhime]

everything I've been playing has gone on hold since I can finally play Lunar: SSSC (MPEG version) that I've been wanting to play for years. So far I'm really impressed, the cutscenes look amazingly good, totally kicks the crap out of the Playstation version. Its a real shame that Lunar 2 never got this treatment.

I've seen the MPEG version of Lunar on Ebay before. But I've never seen it in action. I always thought it would just make it look about the same quality. But for it to look better wow. Are videos full screen?
Do you know if there's any other games that use the video card for enhancement?


Lastest game I beat was Resident Evil (Gamecube). I really like the atmosphere of the game and the lighting flashing thru the windows. Some events seem to trigger randomly so I got startled a few times.
The first time I noticed it was when I reloaded a game because I forgot an item and wanted to save some travel time. I took the same path as the time before and that time bunch of beasts burst thru the windows. Scared the crap out of me. Then I loaded the game again and it didn't happen. Saved the amo heh.

Kingdom Hearts II will be next.

[Gaijin Punch]

The bonus disc of Wangan Dead Heat + (or something like that) uses the MPEG card. Just some (rather ugly) women and cars video.

[citcelaid]

Right now I'm playing Raystorm and Raycrisis.

I wasn't too impressed when I first got them, cuz of the 3D, and cuz it's just hard in general to top a game like Rayforce, but yesterday I gave them another chance and they really clicked. Just incredibly fun and imaginative games, IMO.

I'm actually really, really tempted to pick up the Ray'z Collection CD set now...

[DC906270-BIL]

feeling a bit of old-school fever at moment

Smash TV - SFC
Dracula X - PCE
Rainbow Islands - PCE
Castlevania SOTN - PSX

[SuperDeadite]

I've seen the MPEG version of Lunar on Ebay before. But I've never seen it in action. I always thought it would just make it look about the same quality. But for it to look better wow. Are videos full screen?
Do you know if there's any other games that use the video card for enhancement?

Yeah the videos are all fullscreen (Playstation's are about 3/4 screen) and they are cleaner with less pixelation then the Playstation version. When I first poped it in I couldn't believe I was playing a Saturn game. Also the entire game is only on 1 disc as opposed to the Playstation's 2 (and yes all the cutscenes are in there)

Only other game I've heard of using the MPEG card is Gungriffon 2, its supposed to have a special intro that can only be viewed with the MPEG card. I don't have the game myself so can't confirm though.

[Gaijin Punch]

Desperately trying to break 500 mil on ESPGaluda II. Sure I'll get some better patterns when the DVD comes out later this month. Testing out the capture card I actually got 42.3 mil on the 1st stage (my personal record) and of course, screwed the run up on the 2nd boss.

[Josee]

Right now I'm playing Kingdom Hearts II and Grandia III.

About to beat KHII, and then I'm gonna finish up Grandia. I was in a bit of a financial stump as of late, but now that I have more money, I'm probably gonna pick up Atelier Iris 2, and Steamboat Chronicles.

Maybe, if I have the spare cash, I'll pick up New Super Mario Bros. as well. Although, unless a really great DS game comes along, I think I'm gonna save my next DS purchase for Cooking Mama!

[pugeta]

im playing TALES OF SYMPHONIA PS2 ver and Suikoden 5 also playing mushihimesama and ESPGALUDA 2

[zinger]

Right now I'm playing Raystorm and Raycrisis.

I wasn't too impressed when I first got them, cuz of the 3D, and cuz it's just hard in general to top a game like Rayforce, but yesterday I gave them another chance and they really clicked. Just incredibly fun and imaginative games, IMO.

I'm actually really, really tempted to pick up the Ray'z Collection CD set now...

Cool. I'm a huge fan of Rayforce but I haven't tried the sequels yet (I watched the replays from the Ray'z boxset, and I wasn't too impressed though). I'll have to pick up the PCB's some day...

Did you see this BTW? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVdbrFTEB4o Looks a lot more tempting.

I haven't been playing that much lately, except for Growl which is great fun.