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[Michi]

Vanquish. I like it a lot. Tough, but rewarding.

I died for a dumb reason in Paper Mario 3DS and put it down for a bit. I guess I should go back to it this weekend before Fire Emblem on Monday.

[Zweihander]

Originally Posted by Michi

Vanquish. I like it a lot. Tough, but rewarding.

Wait until you get to the "Unknown" boss.

I'm currently getting indicted by everyone I 1-shot in Dark Souls: Prepare to Cry Edition, and loving the taste of their delicious tears.

[Zhobot]

Playing through Saints Row 2 and going to start a "bad" playthrough of Dishonored soon (more attacking than stealth!).

[The Hag]

Originally Posted by Mesoian

Holy shit. Ni No Kuni has the most poorly design final boss in any RPG I have ever played.

Details? Also, I'd be interested to hear your overall take on the game. Worth playing or not?

[Mesoian]

Okay. So I finished Ni No Kuni a few days ago.

So...here's the thing. Ni No Kuni spends a lot of time and effort building a really interesting charming world filled with charming characters who aren't very interesting. The idea that the protagonist, Oliver, is only trying to save the world because he can get something out of it is interesting. But the game doesn't do much with it. Oliver is always the jesus character, he cannot be out of line or express a lot of personality towards the things going on around him. So he comes of as sort of bland.

But forget that, because the game is interesting to want to go through the whole thing. Here's the biggest problem the game has. From the beginning of the game to a very specific point (spoilers:

SPOILER: (highlight to read)

---

You defeat Shadar

---

), it's a great game that's full of whimsy and has enough interesting twists and turns to keep your attention. Trouble is, after that point, there's another 10 to 20 hours that are bolted onto the end of the game, and those 10-20 hours are where the game suddenly starts shaking itself apart. Suddenly everything wrong with the combat system is revealed with a giant spotlight, the narrative becomes a huge info dump, and the game stops giving you side quests but isn't long enough to properly lead down a path where you level up naturally. All of a sudden you MUST grind, you MUST figure out the best weapons, armors, and familiars in the game, the strategies you've been using all game no longer work and you find yourself often being comboed by enemy special attacks because enemies suddenly don't adhere to the pausing rules that your special attacks have had for the entire game. And to top it off, the end boss of the game is super major bullshit. Someone at level 5 doesn't understand the difference between being difficult and being cheap. It took me about 20 tries over the course of 3 or 4 days to beat it, and most of those attempts were the boss comboing me for damage that, even when blocked, still killed me in one hit. And if you DO beat the end boss, there's a post game mode to finish up side quests that give you nothing (as far as I know).

http://t.co/BWfrgpCw

This is Ni No Kuni in a nutshell. A well produced, impressive, beautiful, well choreographed production that you don't want to look away from, that completely shits itself at the end.

I made a video about it when I still liked it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TAEP...bYNbJA&index=1

[Zweihander]

People sure are generous with those Indictments.

[The Hag]

Originally Posted by Mesoian

This is Ni No Kuni in a nutshell. A well produced, impressive, beautiful, well choreographed production that you don't want to look away from, that completely shits itself at the end.

Hmmm... Sounds interesting enough that I'll want to play it eventually, but not enough that I'll spend $60 on it.

Originally Posted by Zweihander

People sure are generous with those Indictments.

Oh you love it!

[Zweihander]

Originally Posted by The Hag

Oh you love it!

I sure do! Kind of disappointed, though. I haven't been invaded by any dorkmoons since that one I slaughtered a few nights ago. Trying to get indicted as much as possible, just for the hell of it.

[Arc_The_Lad]

Started another Skyrim character to get ready for when Dragonborn....is compatible with my mods.

Nord with one hand, conjuration, heavy armor, alteration, wayfarer, smithing.

Got killed by the first bandit I met, bad start, I'm rusty.

[Syrinx]

now i'm playing ni no kuni and fire emblem awakening

[Quantum9]

Fire Emblem! Definitely rekindles my love for the series.

[Syrinx]

it's sooo good! and i just adore Sumia totally going to attempt to make her cosplay for Acen this year *fingers crossed*

are you playing with perma death on?? i'll admit... i turned it off. lol it's too stressful for me!

[Arc_The_Lad]

If you can load a save file, I don't see the point in perma death, you'll just load anyways.

The only way it works is if it saves the second you die, no going back.

[TheAnarCHris]

Fire Emblem Awakening. It's like a team of developers woke up one day, realized they have talent and went B.L.A.M.. Easily the best 3DS game I've played to that, arguably the best handheld game I've played in years.

[Zweihander]

Originally Posted by Arc_The_Lad

If you can load a save file, I don't see the point in perma death, you'll just load anyways.

Unless you've retried the battle so many times and suffered far more casualties on previous attempts. In which case, taking a loss or two by the end of your best attempt and continuing the game should be acceptable.