Briste's Diary of a Madman

[Briste]

I made some pretty good progress in the last week in Birth by Sleep. I was able to finish up all of the story trophies on Critical and now it's just the grind left. I'm doing much better with this game than I thought I would considering the lofty 150 hours to Platinum the trophy guide suggests it takes. Each level makes such a difference in this game, more so than in the prior entries to the series. It is very hard on critical in the beginning because each character swings a wet noodle for a weapon and it takes a lot of hits to kill even basic enemies. The challenge was very hard up to the point where you can get the XP walker command and then it gets much easier. 

 

I have to say that BBS has been the best story so far. It tied so many things together and added so much context that it actually blew me away in some parts. The story is still a bit convoluted, but this entry into the series did an amazing job of clearing a lot of it up. Some of it obvious...and some of it was pretty . I felt more connected to the characters in this story than the others and the voice acting was terrific. Leonard Nimoy was fantastic in his role and I thought Willa Holland who voiced Aqua was great as well. 

 

I really like the diversity of the Command options for the battle system, however I find it a bit clunky in practice. I died more than once trying to cycle to the command that I wanted to use and either shooting too far past it or not getting to it in time. I liked the drive form with shortcuts you could customize from KH2 better. I rarely used the D-Link system so far..mostly as an emergency cure, but in my limited experience with it, it was pretty cool. The Shotlock ability really makes some of the fights really easy. I also tended to forget about this ability quite a bit, but I found it easier to use at the start of a battle than mid-battle. Overall, the battle system isn't bad, it's just not as smooth as KH2.

 

I am going to tackle Terra's collectibles first and then do Ventus and finish up with Aqua. I found Aqua to be the hardest to play with at first, but by the end I felt most comfortable with her I think. I did a pretty good job of doing stuff as I went, so I think I may be able to get through this in about two more weeks  

[Inuty]

37 minutes ago, Briste said:

I am going to tackle Terra's collectibles first and then do Ventus and finish up with Aqua. I found Aqua to be the hardest to play with at first, but by the end I felt most comfortable with her I think. I did a pretty good job of doing stuff as I went, so I think I may be able to get through this in about two more weeks  

Good to know that I am Not the only one who like the Story the Most out of KH  

 

if you can 100% Terra, the Rest should Not be to hard anymore. Good Luck with MF. In my opinion the Hardest optional Boss in KH and espacially for Terra

[HOGIE838EIRE]

Love the checklist! Great profile you have, keep it up! Super Meat Boy is really tough but you can easily finish it. When I got to the last few no-death runs my head was absolutely melted. I thought I'd never beat it and I could play for no more than an hour a day in the last few weeks but even that few runs through I noticed I was getting better at it. I beat Cotton Alley light world and couldn't believe it, then I was determined to beat the dark world and get that plat. I found picking levels at random too stressful so I just played through from 1-20 over and over. If you put an hour in a day before playing your current game you'll have that plat in a few weeks, GAURANTEED!! If this oul fella can do it, anyone can... best of luck mate and keep aiming for that 100% ?

[Briste]

2 hours ago, Inuty said:

if you can 100% Terra, the Rest should Not be to hard anymore. Good Luck with MF. In my opinion the Hardest optional Boss in KH and espacially for Terra

Thanks  I feel pretty confident I'll be ok. I'm sure it will take several attempts, but from what I've seen, even on Easier modes, they take you down to 1 HP really quick. So it'll just be a matter of getting lucky with the RNG as far as which moves are used.

 

1 hour ago, HOGIE838IRE said:

Love the checklist! Great profile you have, keep it up! Super Meat Boy is really tough but you can easily finish it. When I got to the last few no-death runs my head was absolutely melted. I thought I'd never beat it and I could play for no more than an hour a day in the last few weeks but even that few runs through I noticed I was getting better at it. I beat Cotton Alley light world and couldn't believe it, then I was determined to beat the dark world and get that plat. I found picking levels at random too stressful so I just played through from 1-20 over and over. If you put an hour in a day before playing your current game you'll have that plat in a few weeks, GAURANTEED!! If this oul fella can do it, anyone can... best of luck mate and keep aiming for that 100% 

Thanks for dropping in and the words of confidence! I haven't given up on it yet  It's just stuck behind my Space Hulk conquest. I play SMB on my Vita and I'm about halfway through the 40,000 kills required for the last trophy I need in Space Hulk. Once I get that, I'll be back into SMB and will probably tackle it just as you said. It's one of the few games I've played where time away from it is actually a good thing. Like you, I also don't like to skip around...I tend to lose track of what needs to be done and it adds stress to an already stressful game. I do tend to start on the hardest level in the zone first though to make sure I start off on a good foot. Congrats to you on beating it because it takes real patience and skill!

[Briste]

Well I completed Terra's everything on Saturday night. I saved the Mysterious Figure for last (or so I thought...ended up needing to do the Hercules training minigame after). MF was a real MF'er...I had no problems with the Ice Cream beat mini game and got that within 5 tries on each song. Even though the controls were terrible, I got the racing part done relatively ok...but this dick head set the bar for all-time unfair boss battles. I'm glad I beat him on Terra since I guess he's a bit easier with the other two...but what a terrible idea for a boss. 

 

His speed alone makes him quite challenging, but then you add in all his bullshit moves and it's just an un-fun nightmare. Fortunately, you die in like 15 seconds to a minute or so so it's not a huge waste of time and you can try again quickly. That is the only saving grace in this fight though. What makes it so frustrating is that you can do everything right, and still die because of his insta-kill moves and his knack for combining two or three different attacks at once, negating Second Chance and Once More. At least on critical, all of his attacks take you down to 1 HP except for his floating Orbs that shoot laser looking spears at you...but they take you down to like 10% health so it's not much better. Usually when he sends the Orbs with fricken laser beams attached to their fricken heads after you...he slowly walks towards you, allowing you to cure through the attack and then maybe get a Thunder Surge in...but often enough, he'll do another move to insta-kill you while you are getting ravaged by previously mentioned Orbs with Fricken Laser Beams attached to their Fricken heads (90's reference for all you youngn's ). I've been able to successfully block the lasers on a couple of occasions, but they come too fast to block each round successfully. You sure as shit can't dodge them since they seem to be shot to where ever you are dodging to.

 

He also has this move that made me question whether Second Chance and Once More were working. He slides into you, popping you into the air and then jumps and Light Sabers you in about 1 second for another insta-kill. I would be remiss if I didn't mention his green tornado that he shoots at you and knocks all of your commands onto the floor. If he follows that up by cloning himself (oh yeah he clones himself) or using the Orbs, the odds of you getting to your commands and cycling to a cure before one of them hits you is virtually nil. It doesn't help that the commands seem to need to bounce two or three times before you can collect them.

 

His flame barrier that he casts around himself from time to time and runs into you is easy enough to dodge, and if you don't successfully dodge, is easy enough to cure through. That is one of his more appreciated moves when he does it. His General Greivous Light Saber barrage is also easy enough to dodge, but if you get caught, is also easy enough to cure after. If there is enough space between you, you can actually Thunder Surge into him and possible int interrupt his attack. His (in my best Guile voice) 'Sonic Boom' move is also not too bad to dodge...but it moves 100 mph and curves towards you if you aren't fast enough, but it's one of the moves you can get an attack in after or if you see coming can Thunder Surge through to damage him.

 

His most desired move is the one where he launches himself in the air and does his (in my best Scorpion voice) 'GET OVER HERE!' spear throw and pull. If it hits you with the spear and pulls you up into the air, it does no damage until he hits you at the top. If you're fast enough, you can air slide/cure/thunder surge out of it without getting hit...but if you don't airslide/cure/thunder surge fast enough...automatic 1 HP. I haven't even mentioned him turning invisible, his super sonic zigzag sword thrust-y move where you get 100 feet off the ground, the Meteor shower or his insta-kill binding countdown he does. If he does that last move three times in one fight, you are dead no substitutions, exchanges or refunds. Any five of these moves would make this a good challenge...but all of that?

 

It would be a little easier if there was an option to toggle, where you could make scrolling through your commands skip any that weren't ready to use. It will do that if you use a command...but not if you are just cycling on your own. For most of the game, this isn't a big deal...but for this fight...you have to move/think so fast that it's easy to die if are stuck cycling through commands on their cool down timer.

 

It took me two hours to kill this asshole. I got him down to a half bar of health three separate times before I was killed in some bullshit manner. I was super happy when I beat him...but this fight is definitely as much or more about luck than it is about skill. You do have to make a lot of your own luck and figure out a way to survive the madness until you get your openings...but it was not fun. This battle and the racing mini-game controls are the only parts of this game that I haven't liked so far. I am halfway through Ventus grind and will hopefully get to Aqua this weekend. With any luck...I'll be to Dream Drop Distance by the middle of next week. 

[Inuty]

Congrats! The Plat is as good as yours with Terra done  

 

BTW. I hated also the commando boards  

[Briste]

16 hours ago, Inuty said:

BTW. I hated also the commando boards  

I think they are a waste of time, but the controls are fine and now that I understand the game better it isn't terrible. The only thing I don't like about it is that there is an ability that is required for the trophy trapped in a square  in addition to Pete's D-Link. Fortunately, you don't need to win the game to get the D-Link or ability so you can just circle that area to try and get it...but it's still kind of annoying. At least it is really easy to win though since the NPC's never use their cards. 

[Inuty]

I'm tackling down KH3 now if it is Not hot outside in Germany. But  i must say I'm not too into it.  Not Sure Why but it dont Catch me as much as the other games. I guess BBS will Stay my Number 1 regarding KH series 

[ZoutjeNL]

Incredible list of completed games Briste! Do you have any other trophies left for Batman Arkam City? Or only the calendar man? I completed Arkam City years ago on PC and I was glad once I was done with the Catwoman Extreme Predator challenges. Good luck with the rest of your journey! I will be keeping an eye on this thread. 

[Briste]

4 hours ago, Inuty said:

I'm tackling down KH3 now if it is Not hot outside in Germany. But  i must say I'm not too into it.  Not Sure Why but it dont Catch me as much as the other games. I guess BBS will Stay my Number 1 regarding KH series 

I've actually heard this a lot with this game. I heard that the absence of Final Fantasy players was disappointing as well as the trophy list being relatively easy compared with the other games in the series. Having played everything back-to-back-to-back, I'll be curious if it is as noticeable for me when I go through it. Good luck though! What's the temp like in Germany this time of year? It was around 28 C and humid as all hell here in New England. I live near the beach though so we often have a cool breeze.

 

2 hours ago, ZoutjeNL said:

Incredible list of completed games Briste! Do you have any other trophies left for Batman Arkam City? Or only the calendar man? I completed Arkam City years ago on PC and I was glad once I was done with the Catwoman Extreme Predator challenges. Good luck with the rest of your journey! I will be keeping an eye on this thread. 

Thanks for the feedback! I have a couple left. I have one more predator challenge to do for Batman to pop that trophy and I still have my entire NG+ playthrough to do. Since I won't pop that game until Christmas, I'm not in any rush. I would like to try and complete all of my games for the Gaming By Numbers 2019 event and this game won't count so I probably won't invest much time beyond getting the Calendar Man dates until the end of September. I only have a vague recollection of the specific predator challenges for Catwoman when I beat it on the PS3 and if I remember right, the Caltrops were pretty annoying. Sometimes they work, sometimes they just alert them your there and most of the time they just kick them. Other than that, I don't remember having much trouble with Catwoman challenges...it's just a matter of sitting down to do them. 

 

I see you have an extremely rare Ultra Rare platinum as your first. Well done! I have to assume you played that game before? I am terrible at those guitar hero type games so will never have anything like that on my list. Are you new to the PS4 or is this a new profile for you? Either way welcome!

[Jens]

[...]

Edited September 30, 2019 by Jens

[Briste]

4 hours ago, Jens said:

Guess I'll hijack this question to deliver information quicker  2 weeks ago we hit 36°C which is pretty much up there for German standards. But at the moment it's wayyy more manageable.

Yikes...that's warm lol too warm for me!

 

On 7/8/2019 at 5:02 PM, Inuty said:

Congrats! The Plat is as good as yours with Terra done  

I wasn't sure I believed you...but I beat MF on my first try with Ven...invincible during dodge roll makes it soooooooooo much more manageable lol all I need now are the last two battle commands for Ven and it's on to Aqua!

[Inuty]

2 hours ago, Briste said:

Yikes...that's warm lol too warm for me!

I live in the south of Germany so no cool breeze from any beach or anything here. In my appartment were 28°C at 1AM one day and my wife would kill me if I heat up our living room with the PS4. Everytime it´s to hot, I Play on my Vita instead, this is my Agreement with my wife so far.

 

2 hours ago, Briste said:

I wasn't sure I believed you...but I beat MF on my first try with Ven...invincible during dodge roll makes it soooooooooo much more manageable lol all I need now are the last two battle commands for Ven and it's on to Aqua!

Hehe, I didn´t say it for nothing  Terra is the only one without an invinceble dodge. It took my 90 hours to plat BBS so it shouldn´t take to Long for you anymore!

[Jens]

[...]

Edited September 30, 2019 by Jens

[ZoutjeNL]

23 hours ago, Briste said:

Thanks for the feedback! I have a couple left. I have one more predator challenge to do for Batman to pop that trophy and I still have my entire NG+ playthrough to do. Since I won't pop that game until Christmas, I'm not in any rush. I would like to try and complete all of my games for the Gaming By Numbers 2019 event and this game won't count so I probably won't invest much time beyond getting the Calendar Man dates until the end of September. I only have a vague recollection of the specific predator challenges for Catwoman when I beat it on the PS3 and if I remember right, the Caltrops were pretty annoying. Sometimes they work, sometimes they just alert them your there and most of the time they just kick them. Other than that, I don't remember having much trouble with Catwoman challenges...it's just a matter of sitting down to do them. 

 

I see you have an extremely rare Ultra Rare platinum as your first. Well done! I have to assume you played that game before? I am terrible at those guitar hero type games so will never have anything like that on my list. Are you new to the PS4 or is this a new profile for you? Either way welcome!

 

Ah I see! Gaming by numbers 2019 event, that peaks my interest I honestly have no idea what it is haha. 

And thank you! I already played about 1000 hours on the Steam version, I just wanted to go for all trophies again and start with a nice platinum! Unfortunately I had a couple of corrupt saves which made it a bit more frustration as I lost quite some progress. On the bright side I immediately learned the hard way to make back-up saves of most games I work on, something I wasn't aware of because I never encountered this on PC. And both, new to PS4 and this great forum. I frequently played PS4 at my uncle, always enjoyed the little system but somehow never bought it untill now. I can confidently say that I am part of team Sony from now on, what a great console the PS4 is. 

[Briste]

Platinum #86

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

I finished up BBS yesterday and I really enjoyed this entry as well. I still think that KH2 was the better game to play, but the story in this one was the best they have put out so far. At first I thought it was going to be annoying to playthrough the same game three times with different characters, however they did it well. I played in the recommended order of Terra ~> Ventus ~> Aqua. When playing as Terra, you could see why he would feel the way he did toward Aqua by the end and I had a hard time understanding Aqua's perspective. Getting to play as Aqua, you got to see how she developed her impression of what was happening to Terra and that it was more from concern than lack of trust. Playing through the story three times from different perspectives made the story much more compelling and I was more attached to these characters than I have been to any of the others so far. It was also nice to see how the wheels of the whole series were set in motion.

 

While playing through the story three times was a treat...having to complete the Reports for all three was quite a bit tedious since there really was nothing new to add after you've done them once. I kind of wish I did Terra's story then completed his Reports before moving onto Ventus, because by the time I finished up the last of Aqua's reports, I was two weeks removed from the story and I'm sure I'm forgetting some details. I already ranted enough about the Mysterious Figure fight as Terra in a previous post, however it was light years easier as Ventus and Aqua. I spent about two hours with Terra, dying around 100 times or so before I won and then beat MF on my first try with Ventus and second try with Aqua. The invulnerability while rolling/cart wheeling makes the fight almost a joke.

 

The other thing I thought that KH2 did better was the battle system. I enjoyed the different Drive Forms much more than the command menu. I can't help but feel that SE wants to prove that the battle system from CoM is a good one, so they keep bringing it back in some form. Don't get me wrong, this is much better than CoM and the card system...but cycling through commands and having cool downs is a little annoying in the heat of battle and I found their shortcut menu from the previous games flowed much better during combat. I'm hoping they do more with Terra, Ventus and Aqua in the later games because they have become my favorite characters in the series. That might be blasphemy because of Sora...but I don't find him as relate-able. He is all good and pure and naive, with no real flaws to speak of whereas I could really empathize with the BBS crew. That's not to say I don't like Sora and Riku, I just haven't been as into the story as much prior to BBS.

 

Overall, the only really difficult trophy was the MF fight as Terra. The Maestro trophy wasn't as bad as I was anticipating and everything else was really manageable. I did it all on Critical so was able do to this in one playthrough. Similar to KH2, I think critical affected the regular monsters more so than the bosses. I probably did the game in about 85-90 hours. Couple of notes for you if you want to play BBS that might speed things up. The rubber band trick does work on PS4 with the EXP walker. Apparently on the PS3 release, your character would stop walking after a couple of minutes, but that isn't the case with the PS4 release. While I went to work, I used the trick a couple of days for each of character and was able to get quite a few levels. It doesn't help a ton as far as surviving, since everything does a ton of damage, but it does help tremendously as far as the damage you do so it can make the fights much quicker. I found Ventus and Aqua to be especially hard early on as their weapon seemed like a wet noodle more than a Key Blade. The other big thing I found out is that Magnega + Thundaga will pretty much kill everything and keep you safe. My farming deck (when going for Commands and Abilities) was 3 Magnena + 4 Thundaga + 1 Curaga (just in case) and I virtually never got touched. The only enemies that do not get sucked into Magnega are the Wild Bruiser in Neverland and the bosses. I also used this deck to help breeze through the Mirage Arena battles (except the big boss fights I used the Thunder Surge/Curaga decks). I feel like that deck helped shave a ton of time off the hours needed to complete the Reports.

 

Despite the grind, I really enjoyed this game overall and I'm really hoping they keep up the momentum with these last few games. I started DDD and I'm a little concerned....

 

In other news, I also finished up Re: Coded, but that is just basically watching a movie and doesn't deserve it's own post. I don't really think that entry needed to be made...it just convoluted things up again, but who knows...maybe DDD and beyond makes some sense of it. I also started Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry. I played the first Leisure Suit Larry when I was a kid on my Dad's orange and black, monochrome monitor PC and thought it was funny. I was never any good at it, but it was funny. I also played Leisure Suit Larry 6 in Middle School or High School with my best friend and found that game to be hilarious. I was feeling a bit nostalgic when I saw it was coming out so ordered it. Apparently, despite articles saying otherwise, it isn't available to buy in the NA region yet, so I'm playing the EU release. I played for about an hour or so last night as a change of pace from my KH run and so far so good. Larry's voice is pretty annoying, but the game is pretty funny so far. I also made a trophy from this game my 4000th. You are looking at the proud owner of a Dildo Trophy as a part of my achievements. With Catherine being my 69th trophy, it only seemed fitting to keep the immaturity alive and well and slap a Dildo on my page   I will take my time with this game and just play it for an hour here and there if I'm getting frustrated or bored of the grind in KH.

 

Since I'm in like four events right now...I need to update those threads so my Avatar is about to appear a bit on the front page lol

[Briste]

Well, my lack of self control flashed its ugly head again...I scanned through the Summer Sale and found three games to add to my backlog even though I wasn't going to buy anything for a while. I had a $20 gift card so only ended up spending about $8 in real money so I caved. I added Enter the Gungeon, Tekken 7, and Mount & Blade: Warband.

 

I'm pretty sure @Jenschallenged me to Enter the Gungeon at some point and I figured $7.50 was a good enough deal to pick it up. If the price tag doesn't spike your interest...maybe the 50 playthroughs required to Platinum will. It looks like nothing I have played before and it's not a priority game...but I'll get there at some point. Tekken 7 is my biggest stretch purchase since I haven't played any fighting game since Street Fighter II Turbo on my SNES. It seemed like a decent enough deal and a good (i.e. not terribly hard) game to test if I have any interest in fighting games going forward. Mount & Blade: Warband was an impulse and nostalgic purchase. I saw the price and the cover, did a quick Google search, and it reminded me of a PC game I loved as a kid called Conqueror A.D. 1086. It was published by Sierra Games and I played the hell out of this game.

 

I remember pissing off the clerk at the store about it too lol. I was fourteen years old at the Electronics Boutique (before it was EB Games) at the mall. I was browsing the games and saw the cover for this game out of the corner of my eye on the top shelf in the store. I had just seen First Knight with Sean Connery and Richard Gere, and was kind of into the whole Medieval thing and the game seemed like it would tickle that fancy. The dude had to go get a ladder to get it down for me and he was not happy about it  But hey, at least I bought it and he didn't have to put it back. I never was able to figure out the jousting (I could never get the mouse placement right), but I loved plundering villages and attacking other castles on my way to become king. Mount & Blade may not be anything like that game at all...but it looked pretty similar and I bought it just in case. It could be a terrible purchase, but I'm looking forward to trying this game at some point sooner rather than later.

 

With my current game, I'm making excellent progress in Dream Drop Distance. I think I'll be able to beat it before August rolls around and I'll save most of my comments for when I finish it up. I will say that I wasn't impressed at first and felt super rushed and annoyed by the dropping mechanic...but after I decided to slow down and basically ignore the drop timer, I've started to enjoy the game a lot more. I only have the last world to visit to finish the main story, but I'm going to finish up what I can in the other worlds before finishing it up. The grind isn't too bad so far. It's no KH2 or BBS, but it's been pretty fun at the same time.

[Rally-Vincent---]

[subliminal message] Mass Effect [/subliminal message]

 

What, I didn't say anything, didn't i? Must have misheard... But it seems you have fun playing games, which - apparently - is not true with every gamer that is a hundred percenter.

[Jens]

[...]

Edited September 30, 2019 by Jens

[Arcesius]

9 hours ago, Briste said:

Well, my lack of self control flashed its ugly head again...I scanned through the Summer Sale and found three games to add to my backlog even though I wasn't going to buy anything for a while. I had a $20 gift card so only ended up spending about $8 in real money so I caved. I added Enter the Gungeon, Tekken 7, and Mount & Blade: Warband.

 

Man, I was hoping for EtG to be in the summer sale here in the EU too, but it doesn't seem like it is... Hopefully it will be added to the sale in one of the next four iterations... That game looks awefully fun!

 

So quick question.. Ain't you a bit tired of playing so much Kingdom Hearts? ? Like yourself I played a ton of Final Fantasy, but for some reason I never got into the KH series. Now whenever I see a bit of gameplay, I get annoyed so quickly with the music and disney voices. I think it's too late for me ?

[Briste]

17 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

[subliminal message] Mass Effect [/subliminal message]

 

What, I didn't say anything, didn't i? Must have misheard... But it seems you have fun playing games, which - apparently - is not true with every gamer that is a hundred percenter.

lol Mass Effect is 100% the next series I'm tackling, but I'm going to play some non-series games ahead of time to mix it up a bit. I'm thinking of starting in the beginning of October and hoping that gives me enough time to finish the series before the New Year. I'm looking forward to it though. I definitely do have fun playing games  For me 100% is less a compulsion that dictates my actions and more something I want to do. I still get enjoyment out of that and it's not a chore...even on crap like Space Hulk. I find something else to make it enjoyable. Most people these days seem to enjoy finding things that piss them off and being angry all the time...I like to avoid those things, and no matter how bad a game may be...it's still more enjoyable than most things out there.

 

15 hours ago, Jens said:

Am I officially a dick now by "forcing" you into 100% completion without having it myself?  But hook me up once you're starting, then I'll dive back in just for fun.

Oh no no no...you were officially a dick a loooooooooooooong time ago  I will definitely let you know when I'm starting so you can share in the 'misery' lol You haven't steered me wrong yet so I'm not too worried despite the aggressive playthrough requirement.

 

8 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Man, I was hoping for EtG to be in the summer sale here in the EU too, but it doesn't seem like it is... Hopefully it will be added to the sale in one of the next four iterations... That game looks awefully fun!

I'm hoping so. The reviews mostly seem to rag on the graphics, which I don't mind so much. It also said the controls were not as smooth as on the PC, but nobody knocked the game itself so I'm looking forward to it. I hope it does go on sale so you can play it too.

 

8 hours ago, Arcesius said:

So quick question.. Ain't you a bit tired of playing so much Kingdom Hearts?  Like yourself I played a ton of Final Fantasy, but for some reason I never got into the KH series. Now whenever I see a bit of gameplay, I get annoyed so quickly with the music and disney voices. I think it's too late for me 

Yes and no. I like the style of game so I'm not tired of that so much yet. I don't mind the voices or anything all that much, the only thing I'm getting a little tired of is the story. I'm in the middle of the fifth entry and they still haven't seemed to settle on a story direction because they keep adding characters and subplots and all sorts of stuff. I've almost given up on trying to understand exactly what the hell is going on...but the games themselves are fun enough where this hasn't felt like a terrible slog. I'm also pretty good at tuning out the music if it is too repetitive, which I haven't noticed much either. I tend to play with the volume on the lower side since I'll sometimes play with a movie going on my PC at the same time. I always play with subtitles for that reason.

 

I had also not gotten into the KH series previously because it seemed like too much of a 'kids' game. I had felt the same about Harry Potter and was wrong so I figured this series deserved a shot. I don't feel like it is as great as some people and like the Final Fantasy series better, but it is definitely good. If you haven't started any of them, I'd say KH1 and Re:CoM would make you believe it is too late for you...but KH2 and BBS (and to a lesser extend DDD) are worth playing. If you want to really get annoyed by a voice...check out Leisure Suit Larry's voice lol

[Rally-Vincent---]

You know that I always remembered you from over there by your forum Avatar. Butters is one of the best South Park characters. I occasionally checked if you've got it, which is how I ended up reading Cassylvania's trophy collection thread as well.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Rally-Vincent---

[Briste]

6 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

You know that I always remembered you from over there by your forum Avatar. Butters is one of the best South Park characters. I occasionally checked if you've got it, which is how I ended up reading Cassylvania's trophy collection thread as well.

lol that's pretty interesting. It's amazing what catches our eyes. My favorite character used to be Cartman, but his shtick got a little tired. He's still funny, but I like what they've done with Butters over the years. I'd say that he and Randy are probably my two favorites now. The show has tapered off in recent years, which I blame on the way they do their episodes now. They are extremely current because they make them week to week, but I feel like they don't give an idea enough time to breath and see if it is actually funny. It's amazing that they can put out anything that quickly, but the humor is way more hit or miss than it used to be when they took more time to properly vet out ideas.

 

That Rocky Theme is an all-time great song by the way

 

Platinum #87

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance

Seven down...two to go. My first impressions of this entry into the series weren't that great. I liked the idea of dropping, however it created this false sense of urgency and I was rushing in the beginning. I also found the flow-motion battle method to be too crazy. You move so much faster and it was hard to keep the camera angle in a way that was good for combat. It took quite a bit of getting used to. I also was frustrated by the introduction of yet another layer of convolution to the story and the addition of more (unnecessary in my mind) characters. After finishing the game, I'm still not sure what purpose they served. The 'pets' were also a weird addition in my mind. There was nothing like it previously and they ended up getting in the way more than they helped. More than once they pushed me off the edge of something because they displace you when they run into you and for some reason...they love running into you.

 

Having said all that, I ended up really enjoying this game as well. Once I figured out to slow down and basically ignore the Drop Timer, I started to appreciate the story a bit more and the things the game did well more. Combat was still fairly fluid and, even though I didn't love the 'pets', they added a different wrinkle to earning your abilities. It was a little annoying that the only active blue abilities were the one's that were activated on your current 'pets', but it wasn't too bad. The mini games weren't bad, mostly because there wasn't a lot of them. Flick Rush kind of sucked, but it was easy enough. This mini-game alone is proof of my theory that SE wants to prove the battle system from Re: CoM is a good one. This mini game is basically a version of that battle system, except you can't control the movements of the PC's. It takes a little getting used to and patience is actually key, because if you just spam your cards, you'll run out and get smacked around pretty quickly. I waited on Flick Rush until I got Mega Flare and then just breezed through it since it wasn't a great mini-game.

 

This game went all Inception with its concept and was getting really, really confusing...I don't know how any kid is going to follow what the hell is going on, but whatever lol I will give this game credit, because once you hit the last battles...it pretty much spells out in crayon what is going on (which is entirely needed in my opinion.) I didn't love the way they chose to get to the backstory, but it was pretty good once they did. I'm still not sure I understand the motivation of the bad guy...but it's fine...I gave up trying to understand this story a while ago lol.

 

The battle system is very similar to BBS with the addition of Flow Motion and 'pets' and the subtraction of Shot Locks. It still uses the command menu and Thundaga and Balloon are the broken abilities in this game. I really liked the concept of the Dropping...I just think they executed it poorly. On two separate ocassions I dropped in the middle of a boss fight (some enemies have the ability to speed up the timer.) One such instance was in the middle of round 2 of the final boss fight. THAT was really annoying since I had no concept of how long that fight would last. I had the boss to less than half a bar of health and dropped and needed to start all over again. If you could choose when to drop and/or there were artificial blocks in the game that forced you to drop it would have been more fun...but dropping mid-fight sucked.

 

I feel like I've had more negative things to say than positive, but I really did end up having fun with this game. It has more warts than KH2 and BBS, but it is still a fun game. If KH2 was a 9/10 and BBS an 8.5/10...this was probably about a 7/10. I see some light at the end of this tunnel

Edited July 30, 2019 by Briste

[ZoutjeNL]

Congrats on your recent 2 platinums, you seem quite the kingdom hearts fan. I never tried playing them I really should give them a go at some point. Which KH should I start with? 

[Briste]

On 7/30/2019 at 2:20 AM, ZoutjeNL said:

Congrats on your recent 2 platinums, you seem quite the kingdom hearts fan. I never tried playing them I really should give them a go at some point. Which KH should I start with? 

Thanks! I wouldn't say I'm a fan necessarily...I had just never played them before and I'm the type of person that likes to play games in order and play series together whenever possible. I actually should have waited a little longer to start this run. Apparently there will be some DLC released this winter for KH3 which will mess up the nice order I'll have on my profile when I finish the series. It's not the end of the world...but it would have been cool to have them all listed consecutively.

 

I have been an SE fan from the Final Fantasy series since I was a kid. I'm also a pretty big Disney fan so it's a little unusual that I never even tried these games before...but I felt like it was a series I needed to play. Overall I have enjoyed the last couple of months playing the games. I don't think they are as epic as some people do, but I don't have that nostalgia draw to the series so it's missing that little something. I definitely think there are games in the series that are worth playing even if you're not a series junkie like me. You can get some good deals now on the Final Mix releases so I'd definitely say give them a shot!

 

I should be able to start KH3 in the next day or two. I finished up my Critical playthrough for 0.2 last night a lot quicker than I was expecting. It was amazing how much easier the boss was when you stand on the edge of the battle arena and you can see everything coming. I have a few objectives left before the 100%, but I think I can get them done tonight. They are some of the grindy-er objectives so I may not have enough time. I need to get to level 80 (I'm 58) and this may take an hour or so on its own. The only other two objectives I have is to beat a boss without taking damage and to finish the Zodiac mirror battles. If I don't finish today, definitely tomorrow.