Well, it's that time again

[sal_says]

Never was a Nintendo owner myself always owned SEGA systems so I never got to play Orge Battle. But if you can play Shining Force 3,  I myself will always refer to it as a true classic but even though its not similar to Orge Battle it is RPG/Strategy goodness which shouldn't be missed.

[Dark Pulse]

Never was a Nintendo owner myself always owned SEGA systems so I never got to play Orge Battle. But if you can play Shining Force 3,  I myself will always refer to it as a true classic but even though its not similar to Orge Battle it is RPG/Strategy goodness which shouldn't be missed.

A few comments on that:

1) Ogre Battle did get re-released on PS1. (I'm the proud owner of a copy.)
2) Regarding Shining Force III, I only have five words: "Now bear my ARCTIC BLAST!" Over and over. Over and over. Over and over. The game was fine, but that voice acting... good GOD.

That said, the Shining Force series was always one of my favorites, with Shining Force II being quite fondly memorable for me. I can still whistle a good deal of the game's songs totally from memory.

[sal_says]

True it was re-released on PS1 but I as well never owned a Sony system till 2007 and that was because I bought Act Cadenza.

Comon the voice acting isn't that bad its just unique and I love it ahaha. But unless you know Japanese or go look for the translation the game is basically incomplete in the US. It still is missing its final 2 parts which bring the game together quite nicely.

[Ice Queen Lotus]

Fuck shit god damn. I played Dokapon tonight.. 1v1 against the CPU is a bad idea. As soon as she got 2 towns I was fucked. I eventually just reset when she had 12 towns and I had 1.

[Dark Pulse]

Comon the voice acting isn't that bad its just unique and I love it ahaha.

Dude.

Maybe you need a little reminder.

• Exhibit A: "You can't run away!"
• Exhibit B: "Uwa, ha, ha, ha, ha..."
• Exhibit C: "Now bear my ARCTIC BLAST!"

For the love of all of Sacchin's Panties, how can you NOT say that is bad? Is your hearing that impaired?

[sal_says]

That is not bad that is funny, and what makes the english version that much more better. Plus yeah I think I've been to too many metal concerts that my hearing has been going off on me in recent years haha.

[Dark Pulse]

It is funny, but if I want to laugh I watch a comedy movie, or a comedian, or play a game that's full of such humor on purpose. (I'm looking at you, Makai Senki Disgaea.)

I don't play something that's supposed to be serious and has such a cringeworthy dub it reminds me of what 4Kids does to every anime they get their hands on.

[sal_says]

Hahaha you do make a good point, but for me I use the US version of Shining Force 3 to lol at while the Japan version is my serious version cuz in all you really do need to play all 3 parts of the game to really get the impact of it and its story.

But yeah that dub is just hilarious haha, and so are 4Kids dubs but I don't watch those if I did i probably would be tone deaf.

[Level 0]

Fuck shit god damn. I played Dokapon tonight.. 1v1 against the CPU is a bad idea. As soon as she got 2 towns I was fucked. I eventually just reset when she had 12 towns and I had 1.

This is the reason that I didn't play this game for nearly a month after I got it.  I tried playing it by myself with 3 cpu's on the easiest setting to get a feel for the game.

Instead the game got a feel for the inside of my ass.  Died 4 times in 3 weeks, 2 of those deaths were the CPU killing me to stop me from getting a town, and by the end of the 4th week, they had control of the entire first continent.  I almost had one, but the CPU got an AMAZINGLY lucky roll (it's that one town in the top-right corner that's hard to get to) and killed me before I could finish the boss.

Once I got to play it with someone else, though, that game stole my heart.  And pretty much everyone else who's ever played it with me.

[MagnusXL]

Playing Dokapon vs CPU is lame. Half the fun is trying to get your once-friends to ragequit.

I will note that the Darkling is the stupidest shit I've ever seen. I've never been in last long enough to utilize it myself. It usually turns into someone using that Global Town wipe ever 3-4 weeks. As much as I love Hot Foot, I don't like having to spam it every single turn.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who always spins/rolls a 0 when Mitch the digger shows up.

[Ice Queen Lotus]

I'm playing versus two CPUs on normal, and I'm raping them.

I got lucky, I guess. Dokapon seems to be mostly about luck, though there is some skill.

[MagnusXL]

Pah, luck. I thought it was all about picking the wizard and being a horrendous douche bag every turn.

[LoliSauce]

Pah, luck. I thought it was all about picking the wizard and being a horrendous douche bag every turn.

Wizard has a rough time early game due to being so fragile and not having time to buff his magic stat up.  Mid-late game magic is pretty godlike though, but I guess then you have to worry about the good counter magics as well.

[Cornix]

My 2cents: TacticsOgre: The Knight of Lodoss (GBA)

[Shiki]

Gawd, I just remembered these games.

Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Valkyrie Profile.

[LoliSauce]

Gawd, I just remembered these games.

Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Valkyrie Profile.

You know, I always wondered why Resident Evil got mad fame when Parasite Eve was around.  That game was awesome.

Also +Heat for fellow VP fan. 

[Ice Queen Lotus]

I'm playing VP on my PSP, but the voice acting is enough to make me not want to continue playing it.

[Dark Pulse]

Indeed. VP is one of the most awesome games I've ever played. I'm one of the very fortunate few to have all three VP games, legitly. (I don't have VP: Lenneth as I don't have a PSP, but it is just a port of VP1 anyway.) It's very consistently in my top five, vying with acknowledged heavyweights like Chrono Trigger.

I even had the guidebook at one point. Lost/misplaced it. Someone should buy that thing and scan that bitch, it's like $85 online now and it was damn useful. Sareno Academy (*shudders*) would've been nearly impossible without its maps. It's just so much harder to do those instructions in plaintext.

Plus it still has some info no free online FAQs do.

The PS2 "sequel" is better in some ways, but worse in others. Battle system's nice and semi-realtime, but they add a lot of complicated factors. Music's a mixed bag - it's quality, but a lot of it isn't as "memorable." There are still a few tunes. Check out "Alms for the Small One," "A Motion of Finishing Blow," "Indescribable Grief," "The Meditation of Many Years," and "Neighboring Infinity." A technical note (with me drawing on PS2 sound engine hacking experience here): The game music, stunningly, is NOT streamed - this is SEQUENCED stuff. Honestly it's one of the most amazing sequence sound engines I've ever heard, along with the little-known PS1 game "Racing Lagoon."

The DS one is an interesting spin in that you don't play a Valkyrie at all - you play someone who seeks revenge against her for taking one of your friends as an Einherjar. It's thoroughly a Tactics RPG, with a fair bit of tunes from the PS1 version being re-included into the game, meshing decently well with the new tunes (I'm especially fond of "A Pronouncement from Hel" and "Unusual Line Of Drawn Swords Stream.")

[YubelPhoenix]

VP was a great game and VP: Lenneth was great also. "Come to me dark warriors, battle awaits us!"  

[LoliSauce]

I'm playing VP on my PSP, but the voice acting is enough to make me not want to continue playing it.

It's only really atrocious at the very beginning prologue.  The rest ranges from easily forgettable to FUCKING AWESOME (I'm looking at you, Lezard).  Interesting note is that the VA for Lezard and Arngrim is the same person.  He did another character too, iirc.  His vocal ability is GODLIKE.  Another guy did both Lucien and Grey.  That shit's pretty impressive too.

Indeed. VP is one of the most awesome games I've ever played. I'm one of the very fortunate few to have all three VP games, legitly. (I don't have VP: Lenneth as I don't have a PSP, but it is just a port of VP1 anyway.) It's very consistently in my top five, vying with acknowledged heavyweights like Chrono Trigger.

I even had the guidebook at one point. Lost/misplaced it. Someone should buy that thing and scan that bitch, it's like $85 online now and it was damn useful. Sareno Academy (*shudders*) would've been nearly impossible without its maps. It's just so much harder to do those instructions in plaintext.

Plus it still has some info no free online FAQs do.

The PS2 "sequel" is better in some ways, but worse in others. Battle system's nice and semi-realtime, but they add a lot of complicated factors. Music's a mixed bag - it's quality, but a lot of it isn't as "memorable." There are still a few tunes. Check out "Alms for the Small One," "A Motion of Finishing Blow," "Indescribable Grief," "The Meditation of Many Years," and "Neighboring Infinity." A technical note (with me drawing on PS2 sound engine hacking experience here): The game music, stunningly, is NOT streamed - this is SEQUENCED stuff. Honestly it's one of the most amazing sequence sound engines I've ever heard, along with the little-known PS1 game "Racing Lagoon."

The DS one is an interesting spin in that you don't play a Valkyrie at all - you play someone who seeks revenge against her for taking one of your friends as an Einherjar. It's thoroughly a Tactics RPG, with a fair bit of tunes from the PS1 version being re-included into the game, meshing decently well with the new tunes (I'm especially fond of "A Pronouncement from Hel" and "Unusual Line Of Drawn Swords Stream.")

Yeah, I own original copy of VP lenneth and silmeria, as well as the guidebook for both.  The only thing I ever used the lenneth guidebook for was getting A ending and looking up various artifacts to see whether I should toss them or not though.  I never actually found any of the dungeons that difficult outside of a couple of the late hard mode ones (well, and seraphic gate, but that's a given).  I don't really like to use walkthroughs unless I know there's something very easily missable that I want, you know?  Silmeria guidebook was just garbage though.  I've never seen such unorganized data tables before.  

I chose not to get the DS VP, after hearing how it was such a failure.  I was really looking forward to that game too.  Thinking about it almost upsets me as much as thinking back on THIS.  UGH, why would you spend an entire year making such fucking amazing shit, just to troll everyone?  I fucking hate you, Japan.

[Dark Pulse]

Well, it's not really BAD. It's just radically different from what most people expected, and I think that led to the disappointment.

I still don't really regret buying it. It's got some nice music, interesting characters, and all the stuff that's essential for a good VP game. It's just done quite differently.

[Alfonse]

Oh good lord, thanks to the person who mentioned Parasite Eve, it brings back a whole lot of memories. That game was fabulous. Why did the franchise die off? I was hoping they'll make a PE3 or similar. 

[Ice Queen Lotus]

Every time I start a battle and she goes, "to my side my noble Einherjar!" .. I want to just.. Brains all over the wall.

[Dark Pulse]

To be fair, VP's voice cast is actually one of its strengths in the dubs. These aren't no-name dubbers; in fact a lot of them were doing dubbing for Pokemon.

A lot of them do sound their parts very well (Jelanda, Mystina, Lyseria) by Rachel Lillis, for example.

Of course, then you get the complete fucking oddballs (Grey) by Eric Stuart or Ed Paul's Suo who didn't even TRY to sound asian.

And then you got the most badass wizard in the game, Lezard Valeth, who was voiced by Maddie Blaustein. Besides being M2F transgender, Blaustein also did characters like Arngrim, Lawfer, and even Barbarossa. Sadly, she died just a bit over 16 months ago.

Believe me, I've heard far worse dubs, in both games and anime, than VP's.

[LoliSauce]

Well, it's not really BAD. It's just radically different from what most people expected, and I think that led to the disappointment.

I still don't really regret buying it. It's got some nice music, interesting characters, and all the stuff that's essential for a good VP game. It's just done quite differently.

No, there are some things that are just plain bad.  They turned your team attacks from something cool and useful into a "hey if you don't kill x number of people with this shit, we're going to punish you".  That's just poor development choice, and kills a part of your freedom to play as you wish.  Even just how the team attacks were implemented was fucking weak, and could have been improved a LOT, considering you're required to use them constantly.  There's some other shit too, but that was one of the few big reasons that really left a bad taste in my mouth.

Every time I start a battle and she goes, "to my side my noble Einherjar!" .. I want to just.. Brains all over the wall.

Seriously?  I like all of Lenneth's voice acting.  I think she's pretty great.

Of course, then you get the complete fucking oddballs (Grey) by Eric Stuart or Ed Paul's Suo who didn't even TRY to sound asian.

I'd honestly rather have the VA not have any sort of regional dialect than try too hard and end up with a shitty accent.  Also it's a shame that Grey isn't nearly as awesome as his crazy voice would lead you to believe.