What are you playing, stupid?

[Sega Uranus]

I beat Fantasy Zone for the first time the other night. Of course I have played these games before, but I never beat any.

Not sure why the game is so hard... It might be one of SEGA's hardest games ever, seriously. It has taken me years to care enough to do it in one go. Maybe I should have played the Master System version instead, seems a lot easier.

I think the game is vastly under-appreciated, mainly because if you think about it, the game is actually the first action RPG ever. Not just that, but it really does a very good job of blending different kinds of shooting genres together in really unique ways, even if it were made now some of the stuff would be impressive. And this was in 1985. SEGA always found ways to blow my mind.

[youtube:2rrccemh]fw6MAzcx6Bk[/youtube:2rrccemh]

Oh, and the music is just outstanding.

I'd say definitely pick it up. It's closest to the first Zelda game. I'm even playing as a downloaded Link. The temples are laid out very similarly with all the rooms being the same size, having the odd wall with cracks in it to bomb, etc...
It's got a few quirks, and the in between temple sections aren't overly interesting, but it's still fun. It's got that more free-wandering feel of the first game than Link to the Past.

Ah, sounds like something I would enjoy a lot. Just customizing your own characters sounds like something I could spend hours on.

Also really like some of the ideas I have seen. The bestiary book weapon thing in particular is a very cool way to add replay value.

Virtual On Force!  It's super fun.  The options are a little tough because there's a lot of 漢字 in it.  It gets a little complicated when you are going through the tutorials or trying to configure your AI buddy.  Still its lots of fun.  I've always loved Virtual On and never minded that Im not very good at it.

I really, really want to import this, but if I do I will feel awful if I do not get the Memorial Box Set, which is an awkwardly large price to pay. Some friends of mine have it though and love it, so I might just crack and get the normal edition eventually.

Check out http://www.oratan.com/ to find people to play online with if you want to play against someone around your level.

I'm also about 14 hours into Grandia PS1 (on PSP).  I'm enjoying it a lot.

I have always wanted to play this game, and might download it on the PlayStation Network whenever I get that console.

On that, another PlayStation RPG I always wanted to play was Arc the Lad, anyone know if I should get Grandia or Arc the Lad first?

[MadeManG74]

I played Civ 5 for like, 5 hours or something.

Holy shit this game is addictive.

[SOUP]

@Sanus:
A good chunk of the trophies in the game kind of assume that you'll play the game a couple of times.  I think there are like 20 swords in the game, and each one can be leveled up however you want at the blacksmith. I just beat it and the final temple was pretty great. 7 floors of puzzles.

I'd reccomend Grandia as the better game, but if you're planning on playing both, I hear that Arc The Lad is a pretty short game. Like less than 20 hours short. While Grandia is a pretty long one, even for an RPG.

[STORM!]

Shining Hearts (PSP) and Scott Pilgrim (PS3) and Virtua Fighter 5 FS (arcades).

 Curiosity: VF Team are running an enquette at VF-NET and they slightly made a reference about VF on the domestic consoles!!! I really do want it!

Latest rumour I've heard is that Final Showdown is in development, was due to release late last year/Quarter 1 2011, but it's been held up. Possible release in summer or so.

Fingers crossed!



Also, been playing Civ 5.

Clear my date-book, this shit is gonna take a while.  

 The series is about to die in Japan, seriously. Sega should do something hurry! Don't want to see my favourite fighting series joining the hall of "dead series" of Sega -_-

[Aki-at]

The series is about to die in Japan, seriously. Sega should do something hurry! Don't want to see my favourite fighting series joining the hall of "dead series" of Sega -_-

The series will not die, after all outside of Border Break, SEGA does not have a series bigger than Virtua Fighter. But faded popularity is quite correct, although a Virtua Fighter 6 probably could ensure that the series returns to the top of the summit, as far as sales goes, this round unfortunately goes to Tekken.

Somewhat funny the first time Tekken is bigger in the arcades is when Namco is losing millions and SEGA is making millions, maybe they should do that more often.

[STORM!]

　I think this is the first time that VF series is doing so poor and just making people angry. Sega made some mistakes in VF3, but they have repaired it in VF4. They still having their market for the series on the arcades, but Tekken is doing better...

 And you are wrong about Border Break; Sega have much more profitable titles than Border Break or Virtua Fighter now.

 WCCF, Sangoku Taisen, MJ and Starhorse are stronger than VF now.
 
 VF5 FS is extremely good and well balanced, but people still playing that shitty Tekken! You can see more people playing the new Super Street Fighter than VF...

 There are also all the excitement from Capcom and Bandai Namco over their newest fighting titles like Tekken Tag 2, M VS. C3, etc... and Sega does nothing, like they are dead -_- It's a bit disappointing.

 Sega really needs to be more agressive on the VF marketing.
 

[MadeManG74]

http://shoryuken.com/f2/2010-arcade-inc ... ou-261834/

1. Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion
2. Gundam Vs Gundam NEXT
3. Virtua Fighter 5 (R+ Final Showdown)
4. BlazBlue Continuum Shift 1
5. Street Fighter 4
6. Melty Blood (Actress Again + Actress Again Current Code)
7. King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match
8. Gundam SEED DESTINY Federation vs. ZAFT 2
9. Winning Eleven Arcade Championship 2010
10. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
11. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
12. Hyper Street Fighter 2
13. Power Smash 3 (Virtua Tennis)
14. Arcana Heart 3
15. King of Fighters XIII (only 4 months old)
16. Virtua Striker 4 ver.2006
17. King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match
18. Gundam Extreme Vs (only 2 months old)

and if we seperate VF5 R and Final Showdown:

1. Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion
2. Gundam Vs Gundam NEXT
3. BlazBlue Continuum Shift 1
4. Street Fighter 4
5. Virtua Fighter 5 R
6. King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match
7. Gundam SEED DESTINY Federation vs. ZAFT 2
8. Winning Eleven Arcade Championship 2010
9. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
10. Melty Blood Actress Again
11. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
12. Hyper Street Fighter 2
13. Power Smash 3 (Virtua Tennis)
14. Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
15. Arcana Heart 3
16. Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code
17. King of Fighters XIII (only 4 months old)
18. Virtua Striker 4 ver.2006
19. King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match
20. Gundam Extreme Vs (only 2 months old)

[SOUP]

Just finished the first act of Vanquish .

[CosmicCastaway]

@Sanus:

I'd reccomend Grandia as the better game, but if you're planning on playing both, I hear that Arc The Lad is a pretty short game. Like less than 20 hours short. While Grandia is a pretty long one, even for an RPG.

I would say Grandia takes about 35-40 hours.

[max_cady]

I've been playing a lot more of Deadly Premonition.

The game's fun, but I think it's charm is starting to slightly wear off. The thing that gets pretty annoying fast is that the way the time flies in the game is very strange, unlike Shenmue, in which 3 minutes is roughly an hour in Shenmue, in this one I don't really understand how it works.

Example, you wake up at 6 AM and the you have to go to the civic center at 3PM, so it can very boring and very dull.

Sure, you can drive around and listen to York chat about 80's movies to grind some time, but when you actually want to get things going it starts to get very counterproductive.

The only way to really make time fly is to sleep, find the nearest bed and you can almost skip a few hours on that alone.

And I find myself skipping a lot of the dialogue, while there's a lot of funny moments of dialogue, a lot of it is very bad and just plain boring.

[SOUP]

I just beat Vanquish on Normal.
I don't see how this is supposed to be a 4 hour game unless you played it on easy.
My completion time was 7:08:19
Cover usage 16.02%
Deaths 70

I died a whole crap load of times trying to get that trophy against the two Argus robots before I just gave up and killed them.

[MadeManG74]

^What was the trophy for the two Argus? I'm sure I got held up trying to get that one too, but can't remember what it was.

[SOUP]

You have to deliberately screw up and not finish the first one off before it goes into bipedal mode. It was pretty frustrating .

I think I might play through it again on easy to get all of the statues, and that trophy for not getting killed.

I'm not sure that I'd be able to beat in on Hard.

[ShaunShikeishuu]

Playing Death Crimson OX for Dreamcast. Probably going to play The House of the Dead 2 in a little bit as well.

[Emmett The Crab]

I really, really want to import this, but if I do I will feel awful if I do not get the Memorial Box Set, which is an awkwardly large price to pay. Some friends of mine have it though and love it, so I might just crack and get the normal edition eventually.

Check out http://www.oratan.com/ to find people to play online with if you want to play against someone around your level.

I have always wanted to play this game [Grandia], and might download it on the PlayStation Network whenever I get that console.  

I'm happy with the normal edition, although if there were a version that had parts 3 and 4 of misssion mode built in, I would have bought that.  Getting DLC from the Japanese XBL is complicated.  

Thanks for directing me to that forum.  So far I've just played with Japanese people.  When they don't kick me out, they totally kick my butt.  

Grandia has been really fun, but super long.  I find myself wishing it had auto-mapping, but I use my iPad to follow along on maps from the internet.  I'm about 25 hours in and about halfway through, it looks like.