What are you playing on your 3DS/DS right now?

The_Jaster wrote:

Nice! If you are ever in need of help with online quests give me a shout on here or the old twitter.

Shall do, I'm still fairly early on, think I wanna take my time to learn all the basics before moving on too far, I did that with Tri and I think my enjoyment of it suffered a little bit as a result.

Aye it's definitely better to get a good chunk of the single player quests done before moving to online, especially in 4U since there is required items to unlock for later quests.

Back to Tales Of The Abyss, with no palate cleanser game to replace it back it up. Having said that - and definitely going against the prevailing forum opinion on the game - I quite like it. It's very lingo-heavy and the combat is weak, but I do kind of like its confidence.

I'm not sure if it's the prevailing forum opinion - I'm just very vocal about my dislike of it! I thought the combat was one of the stronger points of the game, though. I don't think I found anything else to applaud really. Jade Curtiss, perhaps.

To be fair, the combat is opening up a bit. Previously I tapped A to win but now I sometimes press B! And dodge, and heal... I think I'm frustrated by another RPG where the fights take place in a fixed and small arena (Okami, I'm looking at you (wistfully, as I struggle with Legend Of Kay... but that's another story)).

I thought TotA was weak, even for a Tales game (and I do find the series to be quite naff).

Abyss in hindsight probably has the worst progression and battle system out of the Tales Of games I've finished (Abyss, plus a bunch of PS3 ones including Graces, Xillia, Xillia 2, and Zestiria comes out soon).  Worth it though as buried underneath what is a extremely flawed surface filled with backtracking and one of the clumsiest battle systems in the modern franchise is a great story about self-improvement and redemption.  

I still maintain the cast is one of the best in the franchise, convincingly flawed the lot of them with just enough endearing traits to stop the player from disliking them.  Mostly anyway, Anise can burn in hell.


I would recommend trying to start primarily using Artes instead of normal attacks if you aren't already, if only because after a certain point the Artes become your main way of dealing damage to bosses while normal attacks do next to nothing.  Although it sounds like you're still in the early part where you have practically no fun artes to mess around with, early parts of jrpgs where you don't have special skills yet are always the most boring.  

Also a tip for keeping the battles fresh, don't feel afraid to try out other characters, they all have different styles if you explore Artes usage and you might find one of them more entertaining and to your liking than Luke.  Luke's the most boring sword user to control in the localized series.  A boring play style in a already somewhat boring system.  



On another note I'm shooting for completing as many of the challenges in Smash 3ds as possible right now.  The first two sets of them are done, and I'm about halfway through the third and final set, also the most frustrating as it expects me to play normal smash for 50 hours, jump fifty kilometres, and beat Smash Run with every character.  I might cheat a little and use the Golden Hammers to spare myself the misery and torture of going for all Smash Run powers though.  

I might not make it though as my attention is being drawn to other things that'll be needing my 3ds card slot.  Might be another pipedream like my attempt to 100 percent Brawl was.

My little girl is 3 and a half at the moment and we just picked up a 2DS. She is obsessed with Nintendogs at the moment, which I recall playing about ten years ago myself. It's a bit text-heavy for her, but it's a great game to (hopefully) get her in to gaming in the next few years.

I've decided! I'm going to try something tomorrow called a "Wonderlocke"! For those curious it's a Nuzlocke only you use Wondertrade for your Pokemon.

The rules I'll be enforcing and following are as follows:

-Any Pokemon fainted is placed in a Graveyard box and unable to be used again
-Dupes clause is in effect, should I get a Pokemon I already have I am to send it straight out for another Pokemon until I get something new, this is to promote diversity and prevent ending up with nothing but route 2 trash (which, as anybody who has used Wonder Trade would know, would be the ultimate result if I didn't have this clause)
-Stage clause, a Pokemon can only be used if it's the same "stage" as the Pokemon traded or lower*
-Only five purchased recovery items at any one time in the bag (found items do not count towards this limit however)
-All Pokemon must be kept within a reasonable level cap for the area (within three levels of the average), one "Trump Card" Pokemon can be had that can exceed the average by up to six levels. Should any Pokemon become stronger than this average it is to be boxed until the area average rises


Obviously I'm not using any repel clause on this run as it's completely irrelevant. As every Pokemon I catch is going straight on to Wonder Trade what I actually encounter is meaningless.

*By stages I mean evolutionary. So, say I trade a Charmeleon, a stage 2 Pokemon, I can keep any Pokemon its equal or beneath it in rank. Should I exceed that I am to trade the Pokemon straight back and keep going until I get a Pokemon that fits this clause.

Pokemon that do not have any evolutions shall be judged on a base stat basis. Something like a Shuckle would be equivalent to a Charmeleon, whereas something like a Tauros would be equivalent to a Charizard, and so on.

That's quite thorough, Athrun! Good luck with it - sounds exciting.

Downloaded the new Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows DLC. I had no idea this was coming, so it's a pleasant surprise! The gameplay feels very different, and I've only played the first level so far - reckon it's going to be preeetty tricky.

I should definitely try to finish the original SK. One day...

Athrun, I'd be interested in following that - if (and I think you yourself would admit that it's a big if) you can keep the updates short and punchy. I still feel that Jay's Nuzlocke back in the old Nuzlocke thread was one of the best I've seen.

Seconding the interest in Athrun's wonderlocke - sounds like it'll be a good read. And cheers Balla! That Nuzlocke is one of my favourite forum memories. I had a blast putting that together.

Well then, if people want updates I shall provide them!  

Woo, good start Athrun! Would love to read a more thorough update over in the Nuzlocke thread - the nitty gritty's always fun to read about.

That's a pretty sweet early team! I always hang on until I get a Ralts - just love that little feller/lass. Good luck as you move on, Sir Athrun!

Not bad at all for a starting team. Is the Ralts male or female, though?

Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Path.

If you've never heard of it, I don't blame you.  It was only ever released in Japan, under the title of Gyakuten Kenji 2.  But there's a fanslation, and it's pretty damn good.

Now, we at GNamer don't advocate the use of emulators when you've not bought the Japanese game.  It's not like that's what at least two of us did with Mother 3 or anything.  Ahem.

Balladeer wrote:

Now, we at GNamer don't advocate the use of emulators when you've not bought the Japanese game.  It's not like that's what at least two of us did with Mother 3 or anything.  Ahem.

Who would do that?

Toki Tori. Despite the number of versions I could have got my hands on, it's the first time I've played it. It's fairly sweet - enjoying working out paths and such.

I've been playing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. About part way through the third case, I decided I wanted to go all in on this series so I bought Apollo Justice (which is the fourth game in the series, right?) and got Dual Destinies on the cheap from the eShop too. The unbelievable fourth case cemented my decision. This fifth case though seems a little out of place, considering they rolled credits and everything after case four. Still, really enjoying it!

Within 3 to 7 days... games!

I'm planing on going through the trilogy again before the Anime comes out in April. But before I become a lawyer again I'm still playing Mario & Luigi can someone fix that damn paper jam please

The 5th case wasn't a part of the original GBA game, it was added for the DS so it is out of place. Yes Apollo is 4.

Pleased to see another forumite discover the joys of Phoenix Wright for the first time! Be warned that the games after the original trilogy are not quite as good, sadly.

~~~

I should be concentrating on Tales Of The Abyss, my game to play when all else is done... and, to be fair, I have given it a few minutes since finishing Zip Lash. However, Paper Jam Bros. should arrive in the post today, so that will get top priority.

On the side I have Pokemon Picross (Area 14 is open for business after spending £6 or so on it ), SteamWorld Heist (will be answering Jas's question in the relevant thread as soon as I have more than two people on my team) and the constant desire to get more outfits in Tri Force Heroes.