satan665

I have the original NES game, and actually just played through it a few months ago. I think its cool that they are releasing them. The 8-bit NES nostalgia is pretty big, and there are probably a lot of people who don't have gamecube but still want to play the old games. I personally am happy with my revamped NES, but not everyone has a working one anymore. It probably cost them next to nothing to make too. I would buy Contra if it came to the classic series, but I don't know if they are onlt doing Nintendo created games and not other companies. I have all the NEs games I want already, but I'd still buy Contra over again.

You can also consider using items, but I think Dis is a good choice. I had her evolved into Valkyrie at the time, but that worked out pretty well. All of the riders are pretty tough. I've still had some time to play this game amongst all the others, and I'm in the final "dungeon" pretty close to an ending. I decided to give up on the Amala, Candlebraum path and go it myself. I saved at a good point where I can pick it up later and play through the rest of the Kalpa's though, so I have that as an option. I didn't want to end up a demon in the end, so you do what you have to do. Some of the boss battles near the end are starting to get silly. They are of the 20 minute battle variety, but not necessarily harder than the fiends. They do take a really long time though. I think its a good idea to play through this way for me, because I know I'm missing some stuff and it will give me extra incentive to play through in a more completist fashion and get Dante and some of the trickier fusions. I don't think I will try to get all of the endings, but maybe I can go for 3.

At this point I'va actually defeated all of the fiends. The monk fiend with the bell has been super useful as a character controlled demon, because he learns Prayer which heals all HP and status ailments and can use meditate to steal back MP. A good way to get past White Rider is to turn to stone his demons that he summons. That way you don't have to keep killing them and he won't be able to resummon them because they're not dead. All of the bosses that summon help can be made easier if you do something like that. Another way is to suck out all their MP so they can't cast spells anymore if stone doesn't work.

[QUOTE=Semjaza Azazel] I've not gotten to play this in a few days... I've played some Shadow Hearts: Coventant, which while very good, doesn't really compare to this game in my opinion (the story is okay, but all it really does with it is have lots of talking characters... little has happened in the 8 hours I've played, really). Battle systems in every other RPG seem painfully slow after this game lol.[/QUOTE] Yeah, every RPG should steal the "Auto" idea, there's nothing like just hitting triangle and watching the battles go at super-speed, plowing through the weak enemies. I use it a lot, and I suppose its a must with the large number of encounters.

Amazon or EBgames should be fine I would think, they are reputable enough and probably have a few copies. Man I am really getting into the crazy part of this game. Everyone is starting to have their own reason, and not terribly benevolent if I might say so myself. Very interesting things have been happening with every human character in the game so far. I also managed to fuse to make Hell Biker, who I love because he's silly more so than really useful. What I found out when I fused him though is that fusions can be dependent on what the current phase of the "moon" is. I had to be at 7/8 to fuse to get him, and I think it took a Holy and a Divine demon. Nothings more fun than ramming bad guys with a motorcycle though.

Man I didn't think it was possible to discover candlebox anymore. They are long dead, thankfully since they added to the downfall of the grunge/alternative era. Sadly for some reason the horrible radio stations out here still play "Far Behind" every once in a while. Stay away from this band, they are evil!!! (dramatic exaggeration)

I have the first three candles in place, but I haven't finished the second kalpa I guess. I kina just wandered around in there til I ran out of energy and then went on with the game from there. I guess that will be my mission for today or tomorrow, I really like the challenge of fighting those fiends. Plus I want to be able to summon them. I have Matador, but those skull thingies are hard to come by. My luck rating is pretty low, so I'm probably not going to see too many of them from the mystical chests. I did pick up a Jade finally, so I can try out some of the fancier Mitama. What type of build are you making for your main character? I have been keeping mostly elemental skills so I can get more turns and protect from elemental damage. Tornado with Force boost is my most potent weapon right now, and its convenient to have void ice and void shock. Fog breath is pretty decent too, but it becomes less useful cause it seems like less and less bosses are using physical attacks. I also have mana drain, which is super useful so that you can survive long dungeons without using up precious MP items. Its easy enough to leave one blob on the field and regenerate your MP every couple of turns.

I found the last Oni, he was in the subway tunnel near the end. I never did come across any of the horsemen fiends, even though I think I am farther than you were when you mentioned them. [Spoiler] I infiltrated the assembly of Nihilo the second time, and the dungeon level is utterly huge. It took me two nights of playing, but I managed to make it through without dying at all. Its always tempting to port out with one of the terminals, but I'm glad I didn't because it would have really really sucked to have to make up all of that climbing, and the random encounters are very frequent in there. At the end of it all is another major turn in the story, but I won't spoil it for anyone.[/Spoiler] So far I'm level 47, and I'm now starting to run into demons who won't join me because of my alignment. One said something like "I of the Vile clan would not side with the likes of you" which was pretty interesting. I don't really like the evil looking demons too much anyway, I've been trying to fuse more diety, holy and femme sorts.

Hmmm. You have caught up to me, since I've been spending time playing GTA as well, I'm level 40 right now. Fiends: [Spoiler] I haven't run into the horsemen one, though I have gotten to the second level of the labrynth so it should be coming soon. I had a lot of trouble with the biker fiend, it took me a while to get together enough fire resistant demons to take him out.[/Spoiler] Mitama: [Spoiler] You don't need Jade to get Mitama, just fuse together any two elementals and you will get a mitama out of it. They're great for adding stats and abilities to demons but kinda expensive to use a lot. I'm hoping a mitama with the watchful skill will come by eventually [/Spoiler] Question for you: [Spoiler] I made it through Ikebukuro Tunnel OK, but have only found two of the Oni, so there's one more before the boss will come out. Both were relatively in the same area (its hard to describe in type). I killed the red pants one and the blue one that I think was ice based, do you know where the third one is in the tunnel?[/Spoiler] In general I'm super happy with this game. The biggest thing (which is fun) is wanting to side up with one of the groups to create the new world, but so far none have really seemed that good of an idea. [Spoiler] You kinda want to side with the main characters human friends, but they get increasingly weird as the game goes on. So far the journalist guy seems the most "normal"...and there's always the white light and the voice from above but who knows who is behind that.[/Spoiler] Well now I'm excited and I'm going to have to play some more tonight.

I'm just glad that this thread exists because it got some Tatu fans banned off the boards. Truly striking a blow for justice against people with questionable taste!

I'd say that when the Final Fantasy games are good, their really really good and when they aren't then they are mediocre. Final Fantasy X I thought was one of the best games for PS2 so far. I think that the voice acting was excellent, and the story was one of my favorites in any game. Having good voices and music really put a game on the next level. The battle system and leveling system were pretty neat too, although I wish they gave you more freedom in how you leveled the characters. The games overall have been tending to be more linear (having to go from town A to town B...) but there aren't too many games that aren't like that. FFX-2 was fun, but not quite different enough compared to X. The story was a little weak and it was pretty much a way to hold you over til the next game comes out. I liked it, but not really comparable to some of the great games. I don't think I've played a game yet (RPG) with better stories than FFX or FF7, but I'm not really a huge RPG player. Games like Tales of Symphonia are pretty good, but not really on the same level as a good final fantasy game.

I don't think that the game is that difficult, its ok to die every once in a while in a game. I usually get stomped by a boss the first time I fight them (happens nearly half the time) but its fine because usually there is a save point nearby the bosses. After getting trounced you figure out some good demons to bring along to cut down the guys turns and take him down in round 2. The candle bearing fiends take the most effort though, the third one I faced I had to fight 4 times or so before I took him down. So far there has never been any parts where I wished for more save terminals, they seem to be pretty common in dungeons. You can always hop back to the main terminals and heal, then walk back to where you were in the dungeon with the encounter down ability. I think its fun to have to swap demons when one runs out of MP/HP until your whole party is beaten down to low stats and you're running out of potions. Then you just barely make it out of a dungeon and pray not to run into a boss. It's compelling and fits into the game, would you really feel secure thrust into some wacked out demon tokyo?

It wouldn't be frustrating except that a good review would get people buying the game, which would obviously increase our chances of seeing any further sequels that come out at some point. I really like the turn system, becuse you can't just power through enemies for the most part. Almost every elemental based enemy in Tales of Symphonia I would just run up and bash the hell out of just like it was any other beast. FFX I really liked too, where you had to sub in and out because certain characters weapons work well against different baddies. SMT just takes it a step further by rewarding you for knowing which spells and defenses to have. Usually in FF games there are tons of spells I never use like sleep and silence, because they never work consistently enough to be worthwhile. In SMT you can try to just melee through enemies with high defense, but it is much smarter to Use paralyze (or something) which if its a weakness gives extra turns, and then melee attack wind up all being critical hits (even more extra turns). Its really satisfying to wipe out 12 enemies without letting them get in a turn when you know their weaknesses well. That makes the battles the way more fun, and in the case of the Fiends (Skull faced dudes) it makes them somewhat possible to fight and actually beat. I don't know, maybe its just hard to pick up on this stuff when you review a lot of games, but I can't really give em any slack because I'd kill to be able to make a living playing videogames all day.

Yeah, I've managed to log some quality hours playing and have gotten my main character to a pretty high level. Problem is that for every few levels you gain, there's always a few demons that you can fuse based on the demons in your party, but their too high level so you can only look at the transparent pictures of them and wish. Some not too spoilerish advice: [Spoiler] in the labyrinth of Amala: I wandered around gaining levels and finding souls that sold stuff, but fell in a hole that took me down to a level of the maze with enemies too hard for me and they wiped me out. worst part was that for whatever reason i forgot to save and had to go back and fight through some tough parts again, which was really frustrating[/Spoiler] I really like this game and I'm glad you wrote so much about it here. I read a short review in PSM (usually a very good source) where they say (paraphrase) put the atmosphere and cell shading aside and what you have is basically Pokemon. granted they have a point about the focus on fighting and leveling of demons, but the big sell of the game is the atmosphere. Thats what makes it so good and Pokemon fire red or whatever mindless junk. I was disappointed by their 7.5/10, but I guess really it only matters that I like it and enough other people did so it could be released here.

Hooray for boobies is actually a pretty good rock album. Granted that is really, really dirty the songs are quite good. They really have a strange mix of being funny and actually playing good music, otherwise nobody would listen to them. "I find its such a thrill, when she grinds me against her will. A lapdance is so much better when the stripper is crying." he he he

My lifesaver in the battle mentioned above: [Spoiler] I very luckily had a water elemental which had an ability that increases my whole parties accuracy and agility. This has been a real lifesaver for the tough battles. It made Matador much easier, because if you miss you're screwed in boss battles. I used it 3 or 4 times and he started to miss pretty often. [/Spoiler] But the next big test was...(read the top line first that tells you where I am) [Spoiler]In Ikebukuro: Before heading into the headquarters of Gozu Tennoh I ran into Dante who annihilated me. At first his attack aren't too bad, but once he starts to realize you are a challenge he uses a spell that kills your defense, then attacks your whole party. The second time around I boosted my attack, defense, accuracy and agility with various spells then just started hammering away. He manages to kill one of my healer demons, but I bested him. It seems I will probably get killed the first time around in a lot of battles. I'm L26 now so managing to push up there and get some powerful allies. There are some interesting NPC's in Ikebukuro but I won't spoil it. [/Spoiler]

[QUOTE=ChibiHorsewoman][COLOR=DarkOrchid]oh man! The Bills actually won a game today. You see the Dolphins and the Bils had this game today and who ever lost would be a [i]really[/i] big loser instead of just a loser. And well, the Bills are now just losers instead of really big losers. It was either the coache's birthday gift. Or the coache's threats to trade all of them. [/COLOR][/QUOTE] What is a coache? Yeah finally the bills blew off their stink and beat somebody, though I don't think the season is savable. The least we can do is get a better record so that we give the cowboys a crappier 1st round draft pick. Of course it seems like the Bills are starting to show signs of life, with Mcgahee playing for a full game and a couple of changes on D. I'm still hoping that Bledsoe gets scrapped soon, he's being paid way too much.

Wooo, I can't believe I read that whole thing, I should win some sort of prize. I'm excited about playing the game a second time with the fusion restrictions off. I can fuse to make a really cool looking L20 demon if my character were strong enough, but I'm not quite there yet. One thing thats really fun for me is remembering the time I actually spent in Tokyo. The Subway in the beginning was very true to life, and its cool to wander through the different parts of the city (ruined or not) and remember what they were like. Too bad there aren't Harajuku-girl demons. Where I'm at now: [Spoiler]I've made it to Ikebukuro at Level 21 so far, the underground tunnel to get there levels you up really fast, and I went a really long way without being able to heal. I fought Matador, who wanted my candlebraum(sp) as if it were some test of strength. He whipped me pretty good at first, but I fused and got some new demons around L18-19 and used a lot of support skills. He really killes you with his evasion, so using a skill that boosts accuracy and attack wiped him out pretty good. I was hitting for 100+ damage and finally took him down.[/Spoiler]

Yeah, I would give it high marks so far as well. I'm a little bit farther than you as per your last post, main character at L13. Trying to get the demons on your side during battles is a lot of fun, even though it can be kinda tricky. There are a lot of random encounters in the game, but I actually still like the ramdom encounter system, and am ok with RPG's using it. Its a little more controlled in SMT, cause you know when the encounter is coming most of the time anyhow. The story is pretty interesting, not scary but a bit ominous. The very beginning was a little creepy but not too much. Having few NPC's is a little weird, but I think it works well in the atmosphere of the game. Demon fusion really adds to the game, and makes it easier to get higher level demons. You can't fuse to make demons with a level higher than your own though, so you still have to do a lot of fighting to level. Good stuff all around. I have a whole squad of scantily clad lady demons myself and it makes a fun lineup. Overall 9/10 rating by me so far.

They bill it as kind of an X-Men RPG, where you can switch characters on the fly. The action is in real time, and I don't know much about if there's level or skill building...Hmm maybe I just shouldn't have answered cause I haven't played it. I bet it would be a good rental.

Its supposed to show up at EB games today, and I think that they're the only store carrying it out of the 8 or so game stores. Its really frustrating that way, I had the same problem with Gradius V. I'd think about preordering games but I'm just not that sure that its a good idea before I've heard much about them. Oh, well game stores are getting stupid lately and just load up on copies of Madden and GTA games, you'd think they'd try to get at least one copy in the store of some of the more obscure games. Next thng you know they will start charging more for rare games right off the bat.

I dress up every year, lately with a superhero theme. I don't trick or treat anymore, but I go in to school and catch people off guard as much as possible. Last Year I was Aquaman, bleached short hair, yellow belt, green tights with underwear outside of pants and it was awesome. I found this orange kids size shirt that looked scaly and managed to fit into it. This year I'm going to be a villain from Batman Beyond. You can see a picture of him on MyOtaku (plug). basically he has skull-face makeup, a straight Jacket and long black hair. I'm going to dress up friday before at school and then Sunday the 31st I'm going to dress up to go to a Seattle Seahawks game. Oh, and halloween is my birthday (turning 24) which may explain why its my favorite holiday.

I'm completely biased because of my ownership of this particular guitar, but I love it. Gibson L6-S : [url]http://www.seneca.muc.de/music/Guitars/gibson-l6s-129227/[/url] Mines from '72 I think, and if you look at the picture its basically I wider and flatter Les Paul shape. Its also heavy as hell but I have love for it.

[QUOTE=James][color=#707875] It's a bit like the complaints about camera with Super Mario Sunshine. Most reviews complained about it, but I actually [i]enjoyed [/i]the fact that the camera was almost completely manual. So I don't mean to suggest that I'm suddenly going to hate this game because someone said something negative about it. lol[/color][/QUOTE] Yeah I didn't think that from your post (You have to defend your posts a lot I bet), I was just thinking that when I read reviews the negatives stick in your mind more, whether they should or not. Unless its a Nintendo Power review, they are uber-biased and sugarcoat everything.

Really I'm just sooooo tired of saving the world with a group of mostly happy go lucky adventurers that I want to try it. I'm getting burned out on sequels too (GTA) and since I haven't played any games from this series then its new to me. Reviews are really helpful, but if you think about it they have to focus on negative things. They'd lose credibility if they failed to mention any downsides. Every game has them and usually they just amount to being a minor nuisance rather than some fundamental flaw. This game seems to be heavy on atmosphere and gameplay, which are a fine combo. As long as its not too scary, which it doesn't look like it will be. ( I still haven't finished Fatal Frame 2, too damn scary).