Lunar Threads

I never disliked Squall, but I was pleased to realize that my memory of him as a moody teenager had skipped over how thoughtful and reticent he could be.

I've been playing Star Ocean: First Departure R on the Switch. I'm trying to do it entirely blind and without a guide, which is proving interesting because the battle difficulty has spiked several times, I've found out that the skill system has a few points for manipulation, and I know I'm missing possible branches for recruiting characters. I finally had to take a peek at a guide to solve a recent puzzle involving moon phases, which had clues too abstruse for me to deal with them last night.

Still, I'm enjoying the run. I've always appreciated settings that blend sci-tech and fantasy. I'm intrigued by the bits of story that have been established here and there. The game can cut from scene to scene at a very quick pace - I think in the first hour there was a sequence of scenes that went from ship -> Moon -> ship -> second planet -> third planet in ten minutes. The cuts were sudden - no nonsense with transitioning ships or finding waypoints. Xenosaga would have had the same journey last hours; Star Ocean is very deliberate about situating players on a world map without worrying about the nuances of interstellar travel.

Finishing up LOh Trails of Cold Steel Part 4! Amazing game!!! I'm going to %100 it. Afterwards I'll be playing Ys IX (^.^)

VidKid369 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:40 pm Hey, guys!! I 100% completed Alundra yesterday - I got all 40 Life Vessels, 50 Gilded Falcons, the 4 Magic Seeds/Books and I got the Legend Sword & Spirit Wand. I dunno how hard this's to do but I'm sorta proud of myself lol!

I enjoyed the game I usually enjoy Working Designs's writing and the gameplay was really fun although the puzzles were pretty challenging I mostly referred to the official guide for nearly all of them. The game is pretty dark but I enjoyed the ending.

Did you find it extremely hard by chance (at least combat-wise)? I remember it being a really good challenge, but not, say, "classic Nintendo-hard" levels. But years later it's gained this status as a legendarily-difficult action RPG and I'm wondering if anyone else found it this way.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty hard at first. The early enemies were really annoying and I'm sure I died at least once or twice. I thought timing the jumps were really hard though and some-to-most of the puzzles require you to time jumps perfectly from platform to platform to get through a room. I thought finding the Life Vessels and Gilded Falcons were really annoying, too.

But, after I got the Legend Sword it made all the fighting through the enemies pretty whatever, like I never thought about it anymore and it turned some of the boss battles into 2-3 hit-quits. Definitely get the Legend Sword it makes the game much easier.

The puzzles were also pretty hard but I have the WD strategy guide so I pretty much knew what to do even when executing it seemed mash-able. After playing through it once, I kinda have a better idea on what to do on my own, should I decide to re-play it lol. I had tons of fun with the game though, like I knew I would, I love all of WD's games. It just honestly makes me want to play Zelda.

I still need to finish FF8 -- I've done literally everything except the last dungeon -- but I got distracted turning part of my Animal Crossing island into Burg. Which is kind of a shame because the island itself is named Lann... but I'll turn a corner of it into fishville later.

Finally starting Bravely Default 2. Cute so far.

Hey, guys!! I finished Xenogears last night. I literally have no idea what happened, what a confusing game. I need to find a YouTube video or something that explains everything to me lol. Anyway, I enjoyed it though.

Right now I'm thinking about playing Suikoden 1 + 2 just to get a refresher course on RPG games I guess. I know those two games by heart so I'm sure it'll take no time to complete.

I'm currently playing Ys IX and it's great! Really liking the plot and enjoying the exploring aspect again

Hey, guys I managed to beat Suikoden today. I got all 108 Stars of Destiny and I did everything for a pretty smooth save transfer. I've only done that maybe once before.

I decided to move on to PS2, but I have no idea which to play. I'm choosing between: Shadow Hearts, Digital Devil Saga, Persona 3 and Star Ocean Till the End of Time. Any suggestions? I'll probably pick by tomorrow.

I've now finished the main quest of Dragon Quest VIII and am working on the postgame content  (I've just reached the Dragovian Sanctuary).

I find a big decision to make in most final battles in DQ is which buffs/debuffs are worth my time depending on the boss's resistances, abilities and whatnot. For Rhaptorne after several rounds I settled into a pattern of focusing my buffs/debuffs entirely on offense. Between the protection offered by my equipment and my healing capacity (everyone in my party had the ability to perform group healing) I felt I could withstand Rhapthorne's attacks well enough and that it was more important to try and get as much damage in before he removed all my buffs and I had to start the cycle over. I did lose a character a couple times, but that was easily enough dealt with through Kazing. I also had set up with Yggdrasil Dew and Yggdrasil Leaves in case I needed them, but I ultimately didn't.

Overall I really enjoyed the experience. It was a lot of fun to explore around the map and I felt like the game did a good job rewarding you for doing so with treasure, monsters to add to your team, or sometimes even just a nice view. I think aesthetically it's held up quite well. Yes the textures are blurry by today's standards but there's enough of a sense of style that I think it still looks good and not just dated. The story was pretty simple but I thought ultimately well-executed in part because the characters were enjoyable (Yangus and Trode were particularly memorable).  I also thought the callback to DQ3 at the end was nice. I mostly liked the skill system. It felt like it offered enough opportunity for customization without feeling like I needed to stress over making the "right" builds. The one area in which I resorted to looking up info in a guide was seeing which skills were in each option so I could plan ahead, though I ultimately think it would be hard to really go "wrong" aside perhaps from spreading yourself too thin. As far as anything that I could call a complaint I would've liked a bit more challenge, though I think I was a bit overleveled for much of the game as a byproduct of my desire to explore the world thoroughly. I eventually took to aggressively using Holy Water and Holy Protection to mitigate this somewhat. Still it's not as though the game felt thoughtless or trivial and it certainly felt like the usual care and attention to detail I've come to expect from DQ was present.

I can see why it's so highly regarded and seems to have wide appeal for a DQ, even if it didn't quite manage to beat out DQ5 for the title of my favorite.

My rankings of the series as I've played it so far would go DQ5 > DQ8 > DQ3 > DQ6 > DQ4 > DQ1 > DQ2

Dragon Quest VIII was the first one I beat. I found the world map exploration so fun that I kept handmade maps so that I'd be sure to know where else I could find something new. Regarding the tendency to overlevel, Dragon Quest XI (and the 3DS release of VIII) handles that better with non-random encounters. It's easier to avoid encounters and stay appropriately leveled or even underleveled to increase the difficulty.

I just started replaying Mass Effect 1 in the recent trilogy re-release. I haven't visited this game in a decade, and I've forgotten enough of the story that this almost feels like a new game. (Only the characters, a few major plot points, and random details have stuck around.) The first hours stick their landing with me; I spent my time last session carefully exploring a huge space station called the Citadel finding side quests and data spots. I plan to stick with this until the Legend of Mana remaster comes out in late June.

I also got back into a couple of older multiplayer games like Mordhau, a multiplayer sword-and-arms fighting game. I find the combat somewhat cathartic, especially as I haven't been able to fence regularly in well over a year. I deliberately avoid large competitive servers to stay away from the toxic chats that caused me to leave the first time, opting instead for smaller Horde servers, preferably with friends.

I'm still playing a lot games. 3 years in a row of playing at least 2 a month.

Dating LuNaRtIc certainly helps me embrace my gaming side.

Completed games so far this year:

Tales of Destiny
The Legend of Zelda
D 2
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Dark Wizard
Arc the Lad II
Mystaria
Outer Wilds
Beyond Oasis
Subnautica
Grandia 1
Shining Force 1
Shining Force III Scenerio 2


Outer Wilds is my game of the year, so far.

I'm sorry you're what

Alunissage wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 7:38 pm I'm sorry you're what

Are you referencing the Lunartic comment?

WD RPG WD wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 11:16 amDating LuNaRtIc certainly helps me embrace my gaming side.

Well it's about dang time you announced it XD

(EDIT: YES I KNOW I'M NOT ONE TO TALK)

I'm now playing Ys Memories of Celceta for PS4 and it's great! I've really become a fan of this series.

Kizyr wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 11:49 pm

WD RPG WD wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 11:16 amDating LuNaRtIc certainly helps me embrace my gaming side.

Well it's about dang time you announced it XD

(EDIT: YES I KNOW I'M NOT ONE TO TALK)

I guess I never said it was official.. My bad.

I'm driving up to see her tomorrow. Our 1 year anniversary. She may even be moving here in the fall. That means RPG all-nighters with Kiz and Jenn, while pigging out on junk food, and getting really sick, because we aren't kids anymore..

Not to get ahead of myself, but wouldn't it be cool to have the 2nd official L-Net wedding on Sept. 2, 2022? 10 years exactly since the last official L-Net wedding?

Dude, wow. I've been kinda sporadic here so I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something, but it sounds ike I didn't. That is sickeningly darling.

I would be up for another LunarNET wedding trip... =)

This summer will be zqfmbg's and my 15th wedding anniversary. We're a WDMB couple rather than a LNet couple, but it's probably close enough.

I've been playing TSS in Japanese and earlier today had reason to think about how much it changed my life.

Old RPG forums bringing people together! That makes me happy. And makes me feel old.

My wife and I are an EoFF (Eyes on Final Fantasy) couple. Someone over there mentioning this place is what made think of joining since I'm playing SSSC with her right now.

I know you don't know who the heck I am, but I'm rooting for you two. Reminds me of when we were dating, and I'd tell people "Yeah, I have a girlfriend, but she's from Canada because I met her on the internet. You don't know her." Always sounded like the exact excuse someone would use if they were just making it up.

Hahaha, that was also the case with me and my husband. He was a college student in Canada (I'm in California), and we'd been in a relationship for nine months before we met in person. That was a little less common in 2000. (WDMB = Working Designs message board, which we'd both joined after playing SSSC. Lunar totally changed my life. Well, our lives.)