Messages

[Ceric]

426

Nintendo Gaming / RE:How popular is Fire Emblem around the world?

« on: March 04, 2007, 02:45:25 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ceric
I haven't played this series yet because I find it takes a special type of strategy game to hook me.

Not to sound rude, but what strategy games have hooked you?  I only ask because I love FE, AW, SC, FFT, and am currently playing Yggdra's Union.  I can't recommend any of the previously mentioned titles enough, do you have any recommendations of your own?

427

Nintendo Gaming / Panel de Pon for DS!!

« on: February 21, 2007, 08:46:10 AM »

IGN just reported that Nintendo of Japan just announced Panel De Pon on the 24th of April.  For those of you who didn't know, in the states this game was called Tetris Attack on the SNES, Pokemon Puzzle Challenge on the N64 and GBC, and Puzzle League on the GBA.  Sure, it's been released many times before, but now it's on the DS with WI-FI support!  It's so freakin' on.

This game is completely underrated in my opinion and I will do whatever it takes to get the word out so more people will play it.  Here is a link to some scans from famitsu:

http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/2007/02/21/104,1172037495,67429,0,0.html

Enjoy!

[IceCold]

428

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Yggdra Union?

« on: February 18, 2007, 03:07:33 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: IceCold
Whoa.. great post bosshog! I haven't seen any of your other ones, so I assume you're fairly new to the forums. Welcome

Thanks.  I've been reading the forums for years, but I only post every once in a while.  Does that make me a lurker/troll?  That would rock, because Lurkers owned M&M in Starcraft:Broodwars!  Man I play too many stratagy games.....  

429

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Yggdra Union?

« on: February 17, 2007, 06:56:47 AM »

***The following is a long read, but details a lot of what I've learned by playing the game***

Hey,

Being a complete Fire Emblem and Advance Wars WHORE, I got into this game about a month ago.  Let me tell you, it shares very little with those two games.  It's not bad, it's just different.  This is one of those titles where the tutorial isn't quite up to snuff.  If you wanna get into it, I would highly recommend having a FAQ open to help out.  I don't endorse using FAQ's, but this games explaination on things is severly lacking.  So here are the highs and lows of the title:

-Cards.  Now I personally don't care for card based systems, but this game handles them extremely well in my opinion.  Every card has a special ability, an ace value, a movement value, and a power level.  The ability can be considered like a spell or technique you can use until your next card selection.  Some are very nice (steal an enemies item, lower their attack strength to 1, blast em with fire....ect) but some are rather useless (cure status effects, swap geography).  The ace value is represented by a weapon (sword, axe, wand, ect).  If the person that starts the union has the weapon that matches the card, then you can use the ability of the card.  I like the statagy element of that, but unfortunately the CPU dosen't have to follow those rules (ala fog in advance wars).  The movement value is how many squares you can move, but this is movement based on the entire group.  So, if my card has 8 movement, everyone moves a total of 8 squares, not 8 squares each!  Again, very different from AW or FE, but the maps are smaller to compensate.  Finally, the power value.  I thought this effected how much damage I do in combat, but it only effects how much "moral" damage you do after the battle is over.  If I win a fight the game tallies up certain results (how many characters survived, the geography difference, and special effects) then it takes the results as a percentage and that percentage is how much damage I do.  It's very confusing at first, but can be picked up after a few maps.  Example:  I win a battle with a total percentage value of +40%.  If my card had a power value of 1000, I would do 40% of that, in this case 400 points of damage to my enemies moral.  If my card's power vaule was 1200, I would do 480.  This isn't explained anywhere in the game, but isn't too difficult to figure out.

-There are weapon triangles ala fire emblem (ex. sword beats axe, axe beats spear, spear beats sword), but then you get some weapons (the sickle) which dominates everything.  Kinda like psychic in pokemon red/blue without the bug weakness.

-You can only attack once per turn.  This was confusing for me at first, but they compinsate for this by making multiple people attack in that turn.  Every attack is called a union, ergo the title Yggdra's Union.  Everyone can create a union when they attack.  Males create a X shape and women create a + shape.  Both shapes extend 2 squares out from the main character.  Anyone within the shape will join in on the union.  A great concept, but what they fail to mention (and it frustrated the hell outta me) is that everyone in the union attacks in a certain order.  I read on how it works and can deal with it now though.  This wouldn't be a big deal normally, but when everyone shares the same movement, you had better know where everyone is supposed to be before you attack.

-There are hidden items scattered in each map, but there are little to no clue on how to get them.  In FE or AW, you could talk to villagers or get clues somehow, in this game the villagers say next to nothing important.  Most of the time you simply stop on a square and get the item, but it could be right in your walking path and you would never know it.  Again, FAQ's are a huge help here.  I would have missed a character early on without reading a FAQ on a map.  I had to move any unit south on one map to open up a new section of the map, but I had no clue.  The spot was not obvious by any means, if someone in a village had said something along the lines of, "I saw a women to the south" or "No one dares visit the traitor in the southern island" it would have been better.

-Items can be equiped for stat bonuses or used to recover moral.  If you equip an item, it will last for a certain number of maps, usually between 1 and 5.  Sometimes and item increases and decreases stats, so you have to choose wisely.  More importantly though, is that you do NOT get a moral back between maps.  NONE, ZERO, ZIP!  The only way to get it back is to use items.  So, do you want to equip that ice spear and get an attack and technique bonus, or do you want to use it and recover 3000 moral?  Some choices are obvious, like items that give more penalties than bonuses or only last 1 map, but mostly it depends on how badly you need to heal.

-Looking at the map before it begins.  This is HUGE in my opinion.  In FE, you can look at what your dealing with before the map begins to better prepare yourself.  In this you can look at the map and see geography, town locations, and enemy location.  There is no detail though.  I can see an enemy unit, but I have no idea what it is and what weapons it can use.  You also have no idea what kind of card they are using.  You also cannot arrange your starting characters, which for the most part isn't that big of a deal, but on some maps the enemy starts right next to you and you can't do anything about it (one map in particular had me and the enemy on top of each other with no room to move, so my unions and characters were already set and unchangealbe-not cool in a stratagy game).

-The characters are actually a group fighting together.  So, if I have Yggdra attacking, it's actually her and 5 other generic girls fighting with her.  Kinda like a mix of AW and FE there.  I like that feature.

-Combat.  This is a biggie.  Again, much like everything else in this game, it's a double edged sword.  In FE/AW the combat is already set and you know the outcome before the battle even begins.  Unless you get screwed by the RNG, you know the results.  In this game, you can change the flow of combat and effect the outcome by your actions.  It's a lot more interactive and tense than the standard fair (kinda like how the combat is in the Mario and Luigi RPG's).  You have a bar at the top of the screen which you can fill up by going defense or you can deplete by going aggressive or you can do nothing and watch the battle play out.  If your bar is maxed, you can use your card's special ability.  If you go aggressive, you can overcome weapon or type mismatches.  The bar will carry over to the next person to attack as well.  If you have a huge advantage in the first fight, you can go defensive and still win the fight while handing over a full bar to the next person who might have a harder fight ahead of them.  Also, every fight starts with a "charge" attack.  Basically, the attacker rushes in, leaps into the air and gets the first strike advantage, the enemy then counters.  Another random effect of combat and based on a different set of attributes.  Some characters suck at combat, but can overcome with there overpowering charges.  Also, it's possible to get a critical hit and kill the leader (head) of the group.  The leader decides to raise or lower the bar and use card skills.  Typically, if the head character gets killed the other team is going to win.

Ok, so I've talked my head off about this title.  I do enjoy the game even though it has it's flaws.  I would recommend anyone who is a fan of turn based stratagies to give it a whirl, but make sure you have a FAQ handy to save yourself a lot of headaches.  I'll answer any other questions if you got have them based on what I've done so far.  Later.

430

General Chat / RE:I need some feedback please

« on: February 10, 2007, 02:49:37 AM »

It seems most site, and people for that matter, prefer to scroll.  Looks like we'll start that way and change it accordingly.  Oh, sorry about the PM sega, I took care of it.

431

General Chat / RE:I need some feedback please

« on: February 09, 2007, 05:23:52 AM »

Mr. Jack: I assume your agree with 18 days?

Most people have been telling me they would rather have scrolling over iframe.  Anyone actually disagree?

432

General Chat / RE: So much for my wallet

« on: February 08, 2007, 05:27:24 AM »

 I've played most of the Cv and think that SOTN had the best soundtrack.  The stuff on the GBA and DS was pretty good as well.  To be fair though, I never the Rondo of Blood though.  That's my 2 cents.

433

General Chat / I need some feedback please

« on: February 08, 2007, 05:24:47 AM »

Hey all,

I'm looking for some feedback on a new website some friends and I are going to be setting up this summer.  The promo site will be going up soon as a place holder, with the actual site to follow.

My question is on the front page, we will have a daily topic with replies section.  It is set up so that a news topic can be discussed by the people running the website, not unlike the way Penny Arcade does.  If we have a topic that gets two or three responces, it will start running down the main page.  So, the question is, would you rather scroll down a page to read topics or would you rather have the topic contained in it's own window with it's own scroll bar instead?

Any feedback would be greatly appretiated.

Thanks!  

434

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official Fusion Tour Wii Impressions Thread

« on: October 15, 2006, 06:13:59 PM »

Sorry, no swag. There was a bunch of cute, yet probably to young for me, girls though.  

As for Link, in the demo I played he was right handed.  I also forgot to mention that when using the nunchuck, flicking it left to right will do a 360 slash and pushing it forward while locked on does a shield bash.  Kinda some neat combos going with a shield bash, slash, slash, 360, finisher!  You also could play the fishing demo as well, although only a few people actually did.  The controls were used to cast a lure with the remote, pull back on it to make it "skip", make circular motions with the nunchuck to reel back in.  Once you caught a fish, you would have to reel in fast while at the same time pulling the fish back, left or right with the remote.  Once it got close enough, A+B would flash on the screen to pull it onboard.  One dude was sweating his tail off, getting REALLY into the fishing.  Kinda scary acutally.

As for Nov. 17th, looks like I got my systems backwards.  I'm picking up my PS3, or as me and my friends are calling it, the Profit Station 3.  You know that sucker is going straight to ebay for massive damage to my credit card debt!!

As for the DS stuff, Yoshi's Island 2 was the same build that they had at PAX.  Pretty solid all around and is spot on with the original Yoshi's Island for the SNES.  FFIII, an the other hand, just seemed slow for some reason.  They were kicking us all out by the time I got to play it, so maybe with more time I could have come up with a more solid review.  Everything else DS-wise was already out.  Elite Beat Agents, Star Fox, the card/recreational/board game (I forget the name), and Mario vs DK2.

435

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official Fusion Tour Wii Impressions Thread

« on: October 15, 2006, 10:40:50 AM »

Ok, just got back from the Jacksonville show and here's what I have to report.

They had Wii Tennis, Wii Bowling, Wii Baseball, Wii Shooting, Excite Truck, Wario Ware, and for the first time on the tour, Zelda! w00t!!

So, Wario Ware was by far the easiest game to "get".  Before each mini game, the way to hold the controller would pop up on the screen.  The people that seemed to have the most trouble were the ones who didn't want to look stupid.  Sigh....EVERYONE looks stupid playing video games.  Get over it people.

For me, Tennis was the next easiest to pick up and play.  Someone mentioned earlier about lag, and he was right.  There is a delay, but not enough to ruin the experience.  I play tennis from time to time and can say that the ball reactions are pretty spot on.  Serving is just as easy as flip up on the controller (kinda like flipping a pancake) then giving the invisible ball an overhead smash.  Real easy and quite satisfying.

Baseball was good.  I actually enjoy not having to field and run the bases.  The sense of immersion is better in this title than in the others I played.  As I was waiting for my friend to pitch, I could wag the remote next to my head and my on screen persona would react the same way.  Very cool.  Pitching can be done overhead, sidearm, or underhanded, although I couldn't get side arm and underhand down pat.  You use the A button to throw a curve, B to throw a splitter, and A+B to throw a screw ball.  Using no buttons got you a fastball.  The only complaint I have with this title had nothing to do with the game at all.  The damned contollers were tethered to the kiosk and the cord wasn't long enough for our over zelous baseball style of playing.  

Excite Truck is played with the remote held like an NES pad.  The D pad was turbo, 2 button was gas, and the 1 button was brakes.  A lot of people had trouble with it, but mostly because they were slinging the controller around like madmen.  It's fast, very fast, with no signs of slowdown.  If you land a jump perfectly with the terrain, just like you could in Excitebike, you get a turbo boost.  Good stuff, oh and the Super Tree Run owns.

Bowling was badass.  Hold B, place contoller in front of you, pull back, release B.  Easy, except I kept releasing the button to late causing my guy to toss the ball in the air.  I did see one guy nail a score of over 200.  Obviously, the problem lies in my own inept bowling skills, not with the gameplay setup.

Wii shooting was basically duck hunt.  Point, shoot, win.  Not worthy of buying as a standalone game, but definately cool as part of a multi game pack.  Lots of stuff to shoot, broken into 5 stages, with the last stage having your onscreen Miis being abducted by aliens!

Zelda looked beyond beautiful.  Not slowdown, brilliant art direction, smooth animations.  Again, spastic people made the bow/boomerang aiming look painful.  Just relax and move the contoller smoothly and it works great.  Ironically, the weirdest part was the sword slashing.  I kept trying to hit the A button and ended up doing leap attacks all over the place.  Camera work was fine, with the Z button on the nunchuck being the lock on/centering feature for the camera.  I imagine a free range look around could be done with the bow/hookshot/boomerang.  The iron boots were assigned to left on the d pad, boomerang on the right, and hookshot on down.  The bow was assigned to B.  When you equiped the hookshot or boomerang, they went to the B button and the bow went to there position.  Messed me up a little, but I got used to it after a while.  The boss was awesome.  Typical Zelda fight, using a combination of items to defeat him.

Gotta go for now, but I'll discuss the DS stuff a little bit later.  Long story short, all my fears are gone now and Nov.17th can't get here fast enough.  Later.

436

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official Fusion Tour Wii Impressions Thread

« on: October 12, 2006, 05:12:56 PM »

So, I'm hitting Jacksonville this weekend with the camera in tow.  Nobody's really spoke up about wanting to see anything in particular, so how about gameplay or controller style questions instead?  If not, cool, I'll post up my feedback when I get back home.  

[wandering]

437

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official Fusion Tour Wii Impressions Thread

« on: October 08, 2006, 06:44:43 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: wandering
The thing I'm still waiting for (and you probably don't have the means to do this) is for someone to put 2 camcorders back-to-back, one facing the screen, and one facing the person playing. And then make a video of a game with a small picture-in-picture of the person playing.

Sadly I only have the one camera, but I could always get some behind the back shots of the person playing.  Alternate between focusing in on the hands and the screen.  It might work....

438

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official Fusion Tour Wii Impressions Thread

« on: October 08, 2006, 04:37:13 AM »

Hey guys, first time poster, long time reader.  My friend and I are heading to the show in Jacksonville this saturday coming up.  I'm going to be bringing my digital cam corder and was "taking requests" for any particular games you guys may wanna see.  I'll also answer questions to the best of my ability regarding the system, controllers, gameplay, ect.  In short, you ask it, I'll try and produce results.

The only request I would have is that someone PM me with some help uploading my videos.  I'm using DV tapes and an hour of footage results in a file size of 12 GB.  I'm looking for a way to trim and compress that up, so that everyone can enjoy the clips at a descent download size.

Later!