The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

So, after reading this post over on Gamespite, I bought Dokapon Kingdom for the Wii on the cheap to give it a try. Me and my friends have been known to play some Mario Party, and I would be all for a better Mario Party, you know? Anyway, Essner and I finally managed to sit down and give it a little trial, and I am going to share some of my wisdom that I have gleaned from that experience.

First off, this is a fun party game. I mean, like, seriously fun. The 1up Review was all down on how little interaction there is between the players? This is also true, but there’s more to it than that. This is a game of huge wins and huge losses. When you win, you win easily, and when you lose, you lose incredibly badly. If you’re in a group of people who enjoy trash talking and making fun of each other, the game is utterly full of fuel for that, and that, honestly, is where most of the fun is. Although, I would say that most of the fun of ANY competitive game with a small group of friends is this kind of talk, so…
Secondly, don’t play this game with computer players. The computer is like… good. Really good. And you have to watch every single one of its turns. Even on super-fast, it got kind of old pretty quickly, not to mention how much the computer just trounced us. Four Human players seems the only real way to enjoy this game.
Thirdly, man, I fucking suck at this game. I was in dead last the entire time I was playing, and my warrior kept constantly dying. I have no idea what I was doing wrong, but I was doing it VERY wrong. Still, I was having fun. It wasn’t frustrating. But goodness, it was horrible. But hey, at least I got “Anime Heroine With Punk Rock Dye” hair near the end of our session. I was losing, but at least I was looking good.

I still don’t quite get all the mechanics in the game. For example, what bonuses to Magic-users get? Warriors get random strength boosts, and thieves steal things, but we never figured out what the magicians get. What exactly does the SP stat do? I know it’s speed, but does it just affect dodge rating? Does it change both dodge and hit chance? I couldn’t find these answers in the manual easily. I don’t know if I was just missing them, or it wasn’t there, but it was odd.

I’ll be sure to report more next time we dive into the Kingdom of Dokapon, but, you know, at the very least I’ve learned that it’s worth trying to get us all together to dive into said Kingdom again, eh?

So I finally, FINALLY got in my copy of Persona 4, and I have been playing it COMPLETELY non-stop. It has not disappointed whatsoever. I’ll give you some first impressions, eh? Without being too spoiler-y.

First off, I love, love the characters. In Persona 3, everyone was kind of depressed or stressed, and the tone was, for the most part, almost completely serious. In this game, though there are important events going on and, you know, fate is on the character’s shoulders, they’re still high schoolers. They crack jokes. They hang out and talk about all kinds of stupid shit just like I did back in the day. They are much, much more entertaining to watch.
Not that there was anything wrong with the Persona 3 characters? But it was an extremely rare occasion where they would let loose and have fun. It was an ever-constant focus on “we need to deal with Tartarus.” Just the basic structure of how the dungeons work inside the TV makes there be more opportunity for fun.

Secondly, I enjoy the modifications to the combat quite a bit. I like that all my characters can still run on their own the majority of the time, because that makes the combat go super-quick, which was one of the things I loved about Persona 3. However, being able to take control during bosses is kind of a godsend, and makes them significantly easier, which is a very good thing. I mean, I picked Beginner, because I mostly wanted the story and experience of the game, not the challenge, and I’m still having a little trouble in combats here and there. It’s a hard game, you know? Having that extra control during times when I especially need it really helps. The rest of the modifications seem to more be balancing issues, but I don’t really find any problem with them.

Thirdly, and perhaps, in my opinion, most importantly, I LOVE the new Social Links. The Social Links in Persona 3 seemed like little isolated pockets, completely disconnected from the story that you had to seek out. Here, almost every single Social Link is tied right into the story. They’re your family, and every single one of your party members. It just makes complete sense that you’d have these strong bonds that affect things with people you are truly close to, and not some random shop owner you visit every day, and I love it. I also like the fact that raising Social Links with your party gives them additional moves in battle. It’s a nice and logical touch. Basically, in Persona 3, I was happy just to pick a few favorite Social Links and work on them. In this game, I really want to work on them ALL, because they’re all characters I’ve already gotten to know through other things and I like them. Plus, you know, one of them is a fox. Heh.

Anyway, I’m going to keep playing away at this game until Christmas, I assume, but damn, it is really great, and if you like the MegaTen stuff at all, you should really pick this up for your PS2 at some point. Seriously.

For the first time in a long while, I am relaxed.

I don’t think it’s any huge revelation that this semester has stressed the shit out of me. I was in shitty moods and generally having a bad time. I mean, I was keeping it together? But I never had time to just sit back and recover.
Now that the semester is over, and I’ve had several days to just be completely and utterly lazy, I’m starting to feel kind of normal again. Damn, but I missed it.

It does kind of scare me for the future, though. I never want to be that busy on a permanent basis. I always want to be able to take days every once and awhile to just sit back and enjoy the wonderful nothingness. Is it going to be that way? Am I going to be able to find a job where I can just sit back and relax every once and awhile? I mean, I don’t think that’s completely unrealistic, and I don’t want to be greedy. I’m fine with working. I need some working to keep me from feeling completely useless. But I can’t just be without leisure, you know? All work and no play…

I don’t know. No matter what, though, I am feeling a whole hell of a lot better, and I’m damn glad for that.

So, here we go. I think I posted the first one of these waaaaaaay back on the older version of this site before, but here, watch the whole There She Is!! Saga right here. Then come back. I’ll wait.

You watched it?

Oh man, those are so awesome, aren’t they?
I mean, the first I was like “man, that was cute, but it probably wouldn’t appeal to much to the non-furry crowd” and then suddenly, it kept going, and turned into this INSANELY cute romance story. It was deep, and most of all, it was so very touching. I remember catching up back when they didn’t have the last one done, and man, I was on such a downer. I was fairly angry to have that happen to these cute little nameless characters, but this last episode makes it all better, and just… bam! Makes me feel sweet and happy inside.

I mean, on one paw, there’s furry for furry’s sake, for no real reason, just… you know. Someone likes that kind of thing. And then there’s making your characters cute and different enough to disarm you, to get you to like them and feel for them without, perhaps, other connected baggage. That’s what this does. Don’t you think?

So, the Twilight Heroes IoTM is the Recylonizer Kit. I was hesitant to write anything about this one, because I really don’t know what to make of it. I mean, I totally called the fact that, soon, there would be equipment to set up in your hideout that would be untradable. Totally called it. And as such, I jumped immediately on board and ganked this one. But man, I dunno.
Basically, the Recyclonizer kit gives you access to a special store. You charge it up by putting items in, and it gives the kit a charge based on its autosell value. Then you expend this charge to get various consumables. There are attack items, sugar and caffeine, even a sidekick.
But I rarely use consumables.
Seriously, the fact that I have to give up items to charge this thing combined with the fact that they’re consumable makes me really hesitant to use these items. This is totally a personal problem, and not a problem with the item, but I just can’t see me using them often. When you add it to the fact that things like the Sugar Substitute and the Oil-Can Coffee aren’t better than the STROOPWAFEL and Mr. Tea at my level… I really don’t know. I hear Ryme has boosted them since I tried them, though, but it was more to make them equal, not better, and I’ve got plenty of Misters Tea and STROOPWAFEL are in what is going to be an extremely heavily farmed zone, so both are more than plentiful right now… I don’t know…
I hear many of them scale, or at least the Unstable Isotopes do, and that would probably be crazy useful to power-leveling individuals, but I don’t think I’m really going to do that, so that’s, you know, less useful.

I guess this has good points. As the first IoTM that is expended when used, it’s good for investing in, I’d think. I already invested in one. It also really seems like it would be a boon to high level people who need MP or whatnot. And the idea is really solid. It’s just, the more I think about it, the less it appeals to my play style at all. I guess I could make items to give to people that they can’t make, eventually? That’s something. But yeah, it just isn’t an IoTM for me. Still, if some awesome use comes out of them eventually, at least I’ll have one.

Well, you can stop imagining, because it already kinda does.

Upon hearing about it from John Davidson on 1up Yours, I just had to try SMT: Imagine for myself. Could it be that great? Could it draw me in with a property I have come to love this past year or so? So I bothered all the people on Talking Time who had codes to the closed beta they weren’t going to use, and got in on it. It’s pretty good, and certainly one of the best free straight-up MMOs I’ve played. (Straight-up meaning, you know, the normal combat, leveling stuff, and not something like Albatross 18, which is a great free arcade-style golf game, you know? Which reminds me, it’s been a long time since I played that. I bet they have a lot of new courses I should try.) When it gets into open beta later this month, I would suggest giving it a try if you like the series and aren’t allergic to MMOs.

First off, the feel is spot on. The game looks pretty damn close to the PS2 Megaten games in feeling, and they’ve certainly matched all the demon animations and models exactly. I keep seeing new people in town with demons I haven’t found yet, and going “Ooh, wonder where you get that one.” The music is not Meguro-quality, but pretty good. Still, I mean, it’s an MMO, you turn that shit off. But yeah, they’ve nailed the “feel” of Megaten that I’ve come to expect.
The combat is sort of an advanced PSO-style combat with pets. It’s all about timing. I’ve been playing a melee attacker with heal spells, like I do in everything, so I don’t know how other people play? But it feels really solid doing melee. You hit combos until you knock an enemy back, and then you can guard, or prepare a counter-attack or cast a spell or whatever. Everything has a charge time involved, so you actually have to plan when you’re going to counter-attack and block, because you don’t throw those up instantly. Meanwhile, you have a summoned demon partner. They work via a customizable AI like most MMO “pets” do, and it works pretty well, but they were damn smart in letting you be able to give specific commands, if you want. If you really want your Pixie to cast Dia RIGHT NOW on this random person, you can use your Pixie’s Dia just like your own. The thing that worries me about the combat, though, is that it’s extremely tough to switch targets. Granted, your demon is normally smart enough to try to draw attention, but if I’m using a caster-style demon, that just means they get dead quickly. I haven’t found a keyboard shortcut to switch targets. You have to click with the mouse. This is just… not good. Tab should switch between close targets, right? Maybe I’m just missing something.

In all, though, the game is really getting me with the Pokemon vibe. You have to be high enough in level to convince demons to join you, and you do it just like in other SMT games, where you talk to them and negotiate or threaten or whatever. Every time I see a new demon about in the world, I start thinking about how I can get it. They have the fusion too, just like the other games, so you might want to recruit even more than just one. The main problem I have, though, is that you can only carry six demons. I’m fine with only being able to take that many into battle, but when I tried to use the “Demon Storage” to store a couple I had that I was going to keep for fusion fodder, I couldn’t. It told me I had to buy some sort of pass and didn’t tell me where to do it. Perhaps that’s their business model, and the demon storage is a premium feature. If so, that kind of sucks, because that means you can’t go all Pokemon without paying. Still, though, even with six slots, I’m sure you could play fine overall. I just like collecting creatures.

The game tries to have a story, too, which I’m barely into. So far I haven’t been impressed, but that’s because the story has mostly been tutorial so far. If the story is halfway interesting and you could play through it with a friend, this free MMO could be a great way to waste some time with an online friend or three. Hell, the whole thing has promise. So much so that I went back to play for several hours again today, because I was wanting to. That’s a good sign. We’ll see how it goes, but either way, it seems a cut above most of these free MMOs, even others by this same company, and I’m glad it’s about.

So Left 4 Dead on Easy is a totally different game.

After a night of Ticket to Ride followed by some connection issues followed by a solid Dead Air advanced run, Morbid Coffee and I were left with one plan, and one plan only: To, uh, get me the Akimbo Assassin achievement. We did this by, of course, going to No Mercy on Easy.
I was shocked and surprised. It was INTENSE. A full game of Left 4 Dead normally takes about an hour and a half, maybe longer if there are a lot of failures. Coffee and I burned through the game in 22 minutes. 22! AND I was doing the Akimbo Assassin achievement, like I said, so I was holding myself back and only using pistols! It was a whoosh and a swoosh and it was nothing like the Left 4 Dead I know and love. And it was totally sweet.
Seriously, on harder difficulties, the game is all about survival. As it should be! But suddenly, on easy, that wasn’t even anything to even pretend to care about anymore. It was all about speed. You had to run fast, and shoot just enough zombies to sneak past. It was a total rush, and man, I can’t wait to try some speed runs with a full group of people, instead of two computer players. Attempting to beat times could make for a really great alternate Left 4 Dead night. I can’t wait to try!

In a swirl of spending TONS of money, my Gift Buying is going well! Here’s the list!

Jonathan: Check
Mom: Half-Check (Plan in place, just have to get it.)
Dad: Check
Grandpa: Check
Grandma: Check (though kind of hesitant. Wondering if I should supplement)
Brer: Check
Festivus Gift Exchange: Like one tiny thing away from completely checked.
Friend Gift Exchange: No Check. I have NO clue.
Friend White Elephant: No Check.

Also, I’ve spent a ton of money! Wait, I already said that. Oh well. My funds are quite low! And they’ll be even lower soon, since Amazon should be charging me for Persona 4 + Expensive Extra Goodies Pack today. Though once I get some reimbursement for some stuff, I’ll be a little better off… and then, you know, paychecks, I suppose. I won’t have much to want to waste on myself after I finish all this gift buying and have Persona 4 to take me up to Chrissymas day, right?
Either way, I’m not totally screwed. I just never like seeing my funds drop this low since I got, you know, more responsible. I like having that buffer.

Anyway, my Chrissymas preparations are going much, much better since last I mentioned them. Huzzah!

I always talk about IoTMs, don’t I? Well, I’m interested in them. So deal.

KoL’s offering is the Sugar Fruit Fairy, which is a sort of replacement for the supposedly extremely awesome Pygmy Bugbear Shaman. I picked it up, but I am personally unexcited.
I mean, I get that gaining stats and increasing item drops are the two most important things to do in KoL to be effective and quick at it. Thus, this fairyball which effectively does both is the shit. But it’s just so unexciting to me. I mean, I appreciate playing well, but I more appreciate playing easily and entertainingly. The MP drain this creates is an annoying cost to juggle, though I admit less than I originally thought. I thought it would be a HUGE pain, but during my short test so far, putting an origami “gentleman’s” magazine on it and using Spring Raindrop Attack left me with a positive MP gain, so I suppose it’s not so bad. But it’s still something to work around. My Wizard Action Figure isn’t nearly as powerful as this, but I would be much more eager to use it if I needed a fairyball because it does nothing but good and I really appreciate the deleveling and healing it does. I feel constantly like it’s doing awesome things, whereas, after every combat, I get that MP drain reminder message with the Sugar Fairy…
I dunno, I guess it feels like I’m so easily manipulated, to let something like that sway my decisions, but dammit, I play these games to have fun. If something FEELS more fun, then I should do that, right?
Still, I’ll give this one a full 100% run like all the others, and we’ll see how it does overall. I do like it dropping buffing items, maybe those will make me love it more, though they drop really rarely. But I’m not hoping for too, too much.

First off, let me say that sometimes I make some really fucking stupid decisions. When I decided not to use the Combat Action Bars back when they were released months ago? Someone should have slapped me. That interface makes playing KoL a lot more fun when using more than one skill a combat. I mean, yes, most of the time, I am just using one skill a combat. But now that I’m diving into Hobopolis for the second time, I am using multiple skills constantly.

That’s right, I’m back in Hobopolis. The first time I tried it, things did not go very well. I learned that you can’t plink Hobos, which made my “Oh, I’ll be a Moxie class and it’ll be fine and the fact that I’m stuck with this familiar for my 100% run won’t matter too much” strategy work like shit. I ended up having to borrow a V for Vivala Mask and a Navel Ring of Navel Gazing and bum a ton of buff potions just to get to my goal, which was buying my Hobocobo. It really kind of embarrassed me, having to depend on all the help, though it did point out how completely awesome my friends in KoL and Twilight Heroes and whatnot are, which I, of course, completely appreciate.

This time, though, things were different. I was a Seal Clubber, which, as far as I’m aware, is about the best choice, as muscle classes have it easiest for most of Hobopolis (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) and I also have pretty powerful Mr. Store gear of my own, that being my Haiku Katana, which can really lay the smack down on just about everything in game. I got to pick my familiar this time, thanks to the update where I could complete my 100% run when I break the prism, instead of when I ascend, and thus am using my P.R.E.S.S.I.E. cause, well, it’s Crimbo season and it’s a pretty good familiar who is also giving me stats so I can keep improving. So I can now kill Hobos in the town square with little effort, and I’ve been working on the Hoboes at The Heap, and I seem to be able to deal with these stench-aligned ones with little problem as well. I couldn’t take the ones at the Ancient Hobo Burial Ground yet, mostly because a lot of my damage is from some Elemental boosts, so their resistance to elemental damage was really cramping my style. But I’ll get there.
The general idea is to keep killing Hobos until the Crimbo content comes out, and then re-evaluate. Until then, though, this is certainly a fun time, and I look forward to getting to buy some gear with all the Hobo Nickels I’ve been getting. Also, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the name generators. Completely. Awesome. Still, it’s pretty obvious most of the REALLY cool stuff comes from playing with many co-ordinated people. But I dunno if that’s going to happen. Heh. But you never know! It might! Still, I doubt I’ll keep this up long before I get the ascending bug again. But it would be kinda cool if I got a telescope and the level 30 trophy before I did, though. Who knows.