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Karthe posted:I'm finally playing FFXIII-2 thanks to Black Friday. Overall I'm enjoying it, but I have a question about the combat - is there any reason to NOT use auto-battle? At first I thought I should manually select spells to discover enemy weaknesses, but I noticed that my ravager will automatically try out each type of element, then once the weaknesses are revealed, start using spells that the enemy is weak to. Aside from paradigm shifts to switch to sentinel for defense in boss fights, and the occasional pet switching and pet sync, most battles are just me mashing X to select auto-battle. I'm so used to RPG's requiring you to select each move individually, it feels like I'm playing this game "incorrectly". I like to do it manually for synergists/saboteurs, and possibly medics (if they do the cura cura instead of cure cure cure cure cure), but not for ravager or commando.
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Jan 12, 2013 18:05
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If you want your battles to go faster, you manually cast lightning with your ravager (elemental weaknesses all being the same) because the spell is noticeably faster due to lightning bolts being faster than whatever projectiles the other spells sendout.
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Jan 12, 2013 18:09
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Fight Club Sandwich posted:If you want your battles to go faster, you manually cast lightning with your ravager (elemental weaknesses all being the same) because the spell is noticeably faster due to lightning bolts being faster than whatever projectiles the other spells sendout. The animation doesn't depend on the previous spell ending first though, you can have more than one projectile in the air. Lightning deals its damage more quickly after casting, but doesn't affect overall fight duration, I'd think.
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Jan 12, 2013 18:11
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Karthe posted:I'm finally playing FFXIII-2 thanks to Black Friday. Overall I'm enjoying it, but I have a question about the combat - is there any reason to NOT use auto-battle? At first I thought I should manually select spells to discover enemy weaknesses, but I noticed that my ravager will automatically try out each type of element, then once the weaknesses are revealed, start using spells that the enemy is weak to. Aside from paradigm shifts to switch to sentinel for defense in boss fights, and the occasional pet switching and pet sync, most battles are just me mashing X to select auto-battle. I'm so used to RPG's requiring you to select each move individually, it feels like I'm playing this game "incorrectly". It's taking care of the mindless stuff for you to keep the pace up. Like normally you'd hit the magic menu and go for the single objective best spell for the situation - the only real decision you've made there is "use magic", and the rest is basically rote. Paradigm shifting is where you make those broad choices, so most of your input is through that menu. You'll want to dig in for buffing/debuffing though, since those spells individually have tactical weight.
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Jan 12, 2013 18:31
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Does XIII-2 not keep the base game's shift dancing? That poo poo was unbelievably fun and more than justified the boring bits being automated. More of that combat system is pretty much the only reason I want to play -2.
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Jan 12, 2013 18:52
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It keeps it but it is easier than 13 was.
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Jan 12, 2013 19:21
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The only thing I don't like about it is they don't use the aoe skills enough. Even setting it to multiple doesn't do it enough because it doesn't bother unless there's like over 3 enemies. It's overkill but its fun to oneshot groups
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Jan 12, 2013 19:37
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Minrad posted:I think I've posted about OCRemix here before, but since yall are talking about FF9 anyways, the FF9 album they're working on is coming closer and closer to fruition. I'm sure it's a year or two out still but they released a new preview a few days ago and drat does it own! I will fight to the death anyone who says FF9 doesn't have the overall best music in the series.
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Jan 12, 2013 20:10
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There's also the issue that the AI prioritizes launching staggered enemies, even enemies which cannot be launched (if memory serves, which I admit it might not). If you mainly control Serah in battles and build her to maximize her Magic damage, like I did, if she's in Commando mode and locked on a staggered target, she'll spend one of her ATB bars running up to the enemy to try to launch it, during which she deals no damage and her ATB bar doesn't charge or anything. By the time she reaches the enemy, Noel already launched it long ago, so she has to jump up there and deliver her piss-weak melee attack before switching to the Ruin chaining, which (again, if memory serves) is slower than Ruin spamming on the ground due to the way her casting works. That said, though, most enemies die before launch juggling becomes necessary, unlike 13. It's kind of the same thing with the concerns mentioned above, namely AI Medic prioritization and the general way the AI handles Saboteur and Synergist skills; there are actually quite a few instances where you'd rather manually input commands... but with the game being easy as it is, you'll rarely be put in those situations where you have, or really even want, to do so. Much of the time, keeping your characters in an offensive paradigm and letting the AI do its thing will do well enough.
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Jan 12, 2013 20:13
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Fister Roboto posted:I will fight to the death anyone who says FF9 doesn't have the overall best music in the series. Then select your weapon and meet me at dawn. FF9's music is nice, but it has this bizarre quality that makes me forget every single track on it within a week. Except the bloopy-bleepy overworld theme, which always made me slightly nauseous for some reason. Sounds are weird.
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Jan 12, 2013 20:46
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Cape Cod Crab Chip posted:she'll spend one of her ATB bars running up to the enemy to try to launch it, during which she deals no damage and her ATB bar doesn't charge or anything. By the time she reaches the enemy, Noel already launched it long ago, so she has to jump up there and deliver her piss-weak melee attack before switching to the Ruin chaining, which (again, if memory serves) is slower than Ruin spamming on the ground due to the way her casting works. That said, though, most enemies die before launch juggling becomes necessary, unlike 13. It's kind of the same thing with the concerns mentioned above You could just cancel the attack though?
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Jan 12, 2013 20:58
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Fister Roboto posted:I will fight to the death anyone who says FF9 doesn't have the overall best music in the series. My favorite is 13-2's just because most of it is trying to be Nier's soundtrack and not quite reaching it, but even a not as great Nier knockoff song is better than what most FF's are.
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Jan 12, 2013 21:03
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Cityinthesea posted:My favorite is 13-2's just because most of it is trying to be Nier's soundtrack and not quite reaching it, but even a not as great Nier knockoff song is better than what most FF's are. Alternatively, a not-as-great Nier knockoff song is obnoxious, wailing nonsense, as FFXIII-2 handily demonstrates.
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Jan 12, 2013 21:05
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Terper posted:You could just cancel the attack though? At which point you only have four Ruins queued. Might as well just mash X (or A, I suppose) on Ruin five times. Maybe it's just me but I feel that's less obnoxious.
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Jan 12, 2013 21:06
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Cityinthesea posted:My favorite is 13-2's just because most of it is trying to be Nier's soundtrack and not quite reaching it, but even a not as great Nier knockoff song is better than what most FF's are. FF9 just oh-so-wins. 150+ tracks of pure awesome. Especially the world theme. 13-2 is good, but sometimes the lyrics just goddam shouldn't be there.
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Jan 12, 2013 21:06
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Fister Roboto posted:I will fight to the death anyone who says FF9 doesn't have the overall best music in the series. Everything I heard from that video was good except when I could hear the theme from the game.  Really, it just sounds copy/pasted on top of a different track.
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Jan 12, 2013 21:21
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If you've leveled Serah right she should be spending as little time as possible as a Commando anyway.
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Jan 12, 2013 21:36
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Aureon posted:The attacking roles do their knack quite well, on the other 4 you may (will) have to fiddle manually. Well for Ravagers, if an enemy has no weakness/multiple weaknesses, the AI will shuffle between all elements that would do the most damage, and you can avoid splash damage to something that would be resistent or absorb it by picking it yourself. The only other real reason to do it is if you want to  out over the speed of your attacks. For example, if you need to hit an enemy to stagger it with a Ravager, choosing a Thunder/a/ga attack will hit the enemy immediatly, but you'd have to guide to it in the menu faster than your character would auto attack->send the spell over-> attack animation. There isn't any real reason to choose your attack as a Commando unless you want to Blitz when the computer would want you to only hit one target, and Auto Attack targets an enemy with Attack or Ruin dependant on which would do more damage, presumably because it would just do the calculation twice and pick one. Oh, and I guess Snow and Fang's Limit Breaks are in there, if you can call them that.If for some bizarre reason you felt like controlling a Sentinel for very long, you can pick which of the different blocks/counters he uses, and if you feel a long attrition battle coming up then Medigaurd is useful, even when your health is near full, but the AI only uses it at low HP. For Syn/Sab both, sometimes you don't want all 8 status de/buffs up at once, or you want Poison/Regen up first, or De/Brave, whatever, but I'm sure you've figured that out by now. Back to the speed thing, each character takes a set amount of time from starting their attack animation and the spell actually getting off the ground. Lightning, because of this, is the worst medic, since it takes her like 3 seconds to start healing your (nearly dead) party member. But rather than paraphrase, I'll just paste from the Game Mechanics Guide on GameFAQS: Final Fantasy XIII Battle Mechanics posted:Based on multiple tests per character, these are estimates of the relative casting speeds for each character. Everyone's speed is displayed relative to Vanille. For the sake of estimation, everything was rounded to the nearest 5%. If you want to know way, way more than you'll ever need about an RPG, look for a Game Mechanics guide. I love this poo poo. Here's the one for XIII, if anyone is interested. ETA: Oh jesus christ I should learn to go to the next page. OK I'm sure I was beaten on most of this, but I posted a graph.
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Jan 12, 2013 21:49
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I'm not sure anyone's mentioned it in here, but pwexil and Spikevegeta are going to be doing the second half of a speedrun of FF9 at around 7:00 PM EDT for Awesome Games Done Quickly, located here: http://marathon.speeddemosarchive.com/. First half's located here: http://fr.twitch.tv/speeddemosarchivesda/b/355843975?t=16h20m11s. There're also some pretty cool prizes coming if you donate to the Prevent Cancer Foundation through the SDA main page during the second half of the run, including a shot at a replica gunblade if you donate a minimum of 40 dollars and a chance for a boxed copy of Super Famicom Chrono Trigger at a minimum of I think 20. Run's amazing, if you're at all interested in speedruns you should check it out (along with most of the rest of the archives because  ).Minrad posted:I think I've posted about OCRemix here before, but since yall are talking about FF9 anyways, the FF9 album they're working on is coming closer and closer to fruition. I'm sure it's a year or two out still but they released a new preview a few days ago and drat does it own! This is awesome and I can't wait to hear this album. Do they have any kind of tracklist or playlist up, or is the album still too far out?
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Jan 12, 2013 21:52
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Fungah! posted:I'm not sure anyone's mentioned it in here, but pwexil and Spikevegeta are going to be doing the second half of a speedrun of FF9 at around 7:00 PM EDT for Awesome Games Done Quickly, located here: http://marathon.speeddemosarchive.com/. First half's located here: http://fr.twitch.tv/speeddemosarchivesda/b/355843975?t=16h20m11s. There're also some pretty cool prizes coming if you donate to the Prevent Cancer Foundation through the SDA main page during the second half of the run, including a shot at a replica gunblade if you donate a minimum of 40 dollars and a chance for a boxed copy of Super Famicom Chrono Trigger at a minimum of I think 20. Run's amazing, if you're at all interested in speedruns you should check it out (along with most of the rest of the archives because Here's the thread for it: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=27108 For the most part, almost every song should be getting a remix and the great majority of tracks are done; the hard part is finishing up the last few tracks, adding the polish, and squeezing in a release since OCRemix likes to give each album project a month or two of breathing space so everyone can relish them. There's a few song previews from 2011: http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=830515&postcount=667 Place I'll Return to Someday on guitar 
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Jan 13, 2013 01:46
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Cityinthesea posted:My favorite is 13-2's just because most of it is trying to be Nier's soundtrack and not quite reaching it, but even a not as great Nier knockoff song is better than what most FF's are. Lightning Returns can only have a phenomenal soundtrack after what we've gotten with the previous two games.
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Jan 13, 2013 01:50
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Fungah! posted:I'm not sure anyone's mentioned it in here, but pwexil and Spikevegeta are going to be doing the second half of a speedrun of FF9 at around 7:00 PM EDT for Awesome Games Done Quickly, located here: http://marathon.speeddemosarchive.com/. First half's located here: http://fr.twitch.tv/speeddemosarchivesda/b/355843975?t=16h20m11s. There're also some pretty cool prizes coming if you donate to the Prevent Cancer Foundation through the SDA main page during the second half of the run, including a shot at a replica gunblade if you donate a minimum of 40 dollars and a chance for a boxed copy of Super Famicom Chrono Trigger at a minimum of I think 20. Run's amazing, if you're at all interested in speedruns you should check it out (along with most of the rest of the archives because It would be really cool if I could watch these without having to also watch a room full of fat balding neckbeards picking their noses. I guess I could shrink the window down to hide it, but god drat the concept annoys me.
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Jan 13, 2013 01:54
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Azure_Horizon posted:IX has an incredible soundtrack, but XIII-2 is right behind it. You're correct in that it has obvious NIER influences Can you point out some examples? Because I seriously don't see it at all.
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Jan 13, 2013 01:56
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Azure_Horizon posted:Lightning Returns can only have a phenomenal soundtrack after what we've gotten with the previous two games. With music there's no telling really. At least it's keeping the same composers, so it'll be consistant. Not that I like XIII's music a great deal (outside of a few songs), I do like that they had recurring leimotifs, even if I hated the tune itself.
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Jan 13, 2013 01:58
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Krad posted:Can you point out some examples? Because I seriously don't see it at all. Noel's Theme is easily the strongest argument for it, along with The Shadow of Valhalla, and The Ruler of Time and Space; also Caius' Theme. It's the reliance on heavy percussion to many of the tracks, coupled with choir work and heavy use of vocals. XIII-2 could have benefited more from Emi Evans' unique language creation instead of the kind-of-bad lyrics, but there's definitely a strong influence from NIER since its soundtrack made waves in Japan.
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Jan 13, 2013 02:46
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Azure_Horizon posted:Noel's Theme is easily the strongest argument for it, along with The Shadow of Valhalla, and The Ruler of Time and Space; also Caius' Theme. The first two, I can sorta hear slight similarities to the stuff in Nier. Not so much the other two.
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Jan 13, 2013 02:51
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Azure_Horizon posted:Noel's Theme is easily the strongest argument for it, along with The Shadow of Valhalla, and The Ruler of Time and Space; also Caius' Theme. It's the reliance on heavy percussion to many of the tracks, coupled with choir work and heavy use of vocals. XIII-2 could have benefited more from Emi Evans' unique language creation instead of the kind-of-bad lyrics, but there's definitely a strong influence from NIER since its soundtrack made waves in Japan. The first one is a pretty similar style, even the melody itself reminds me of Neir. The rest... not so much.
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Jan 13, 2013 03:41
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Fister Roboto posted:It would be really cool if I could watch these without having to also watch a room full of fat balding neckbeards picking their noses. I guess I could shrink the window down to hide it, but god drat the concept annoys me. You are getting really mad over a thing where people are taking time out of their lives to meet up and raise money for cancer research. Really shows the quality of your character when watching people do good deeds really annoys you because it isn't being done by supermodels. ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jan 13, 2013 |
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Jan 13, 2013 03:52
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Sorry, don't get me wrong, I think it's cool what they're doing, but I don't understand why they need to have a camera showing off a room full of dudes staring at a screen while picking their noses. It's gross no matter how many cancer kids they save.
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Jan 13, 2013 04:17
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They are legitimately doing a good thing but I honestly cannot think of a single video playthrough of a game that was improved by showing what the person/people playing it are doing in real life. Not really a criticism, but confusion as to why they think it's a good idea.Fister Roboto posted:I will fight to the death anyone who says FF9 doesn't have the overall best music in the series. That's tough for me to judge, since I think 9 has an amazing soundtrack, but some of the stuff in 8 (as much as I dislike the game as a whole) is fantastic. And I really love 12's soundtrack even if it's not the same type of music as the previous games. In fact the only real major failing of 12's music was that since there were no transitions into battles, you would hear one track of music for sometimes a few hours on end, especially during that awful trek through the sandseas to get to the Tomb of Raithwall.
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Jan 13, 2013 04:41
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S-Alpha posted:You are getting really mad over a thing where people are taking time out of their lives to meet up and raise money for cancer research. Really shows the quality of your character when watching people do good deeds really annoys you because it isn't being done by supermodels. XII musically has a very good achievement: Probably the best rendition of the Main Theme. (I'm pointing out the link because there's four or five different tracks called 'main theme' on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n2Y3VsAE3c) It's the only track Uematsu made for XII, if i remember correctly, and the first use of a real orchestra in FF.
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Jan 13, 2013 05:09
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Aureon posted:It's the only track Uematsu made for XII, if i remember correctly, and the first use of a real orchestra in FF. What about FF8's ending theme? (and the intro as well for that matter) 
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Jan 13, 2013 05:17
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Aureon posted:XII musically has a very good achievement: Probably the best rendition of the Main Theme. (I'm pointing out the link because there's four or five different tracks called 'main theme' on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n2Y3VsAE3c) I really liked the music in 12 but I can see where people who think its boring or forgettable are coming from. It does a great job of setting the scene and complimenting the environment, but there aren't a lot of stand out tracks. That one is probably the best.
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Jan 13, 2013 05:19
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Krad posted:What about FF8's ending theme? (and the intro as well for that matter) However, upon better information research, i was wrong.
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Jan 13, 2013 05:36
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Aureon posted:XII musically has a very good achievement: Probably the best rendition of the Main Theme. (I'm pointing out the link because there's four or five different tracks called 'main theme' on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n2Y3VsAE3c) S-Alpha posted:You are getting really mad over a thing where people are taking time out of their lives to meet up and raise money for cancer research. Really shows the quality of your character when watching people do good deeds really annoys you because it isn't being done by supermodels.
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Jan 13, 2013 06:22
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I think the point is that it was a gaming marathon and they needed to show that there were actual people playing these games nonstop. (this is a dumb argument)
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Jan 13, 2013 06:48
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The White Dragon posted:Man I see where you're coming from but I don't think you see where Roboto is coming from. His gripe is not with their goal, or even the fact that they aren't attractive, but the fact that they were self-important enough to think seeing themselves on camera was necessary. It's like the people who put games on Greenlight where half their promotional video is them spazzing into a camera; we're here for their product and they're supposed to be here to showcase that product, but instead they just want to showcase themselves. I'll counter this by saying a lot of that 415k they raised for cancer research came from other unattractive weirdo nerds (y'know, the kind of people who'd watch a five day videogame marathon) and being on-camera and having names and faces and personalities even if you think they're gross or dorky or whatever probably helped them raise more money than a faceless videogame window would've. People kept giving shout-outs or asking one of them to do a funny thing or whatever along with their donation note. People like to interact with people, even nerds they don't know. I mean, I urge anyone who thinks they did it wrong to organize their own charitable videogame marathon. It's not like having another one could hurt. EDIT: Basically what I'm saying is it benefitted the donation side and the nearly half-a-million dollars in charitable donations is what's important, not doing a high-quality let's play you loving dorks
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Jan 13, 2013 07:06
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Yeah really. It was fun and goofy and silly and I enjoyed it. I mean, having one of them calmly and silently reach over to put 20 bucks in the swear jar and start swearing up a storm because the game kept screwing them over was pretty hilarious. It's not really self-importance or anything.
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Jan 13, 2013 07:10
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I will argue to the death that FF3 has some of the best music in the series.
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Jan 13, 2013 11:45
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Krad posted:The first one is a pretty similar style, even the melody itself reminds me of Neir. The rest... not so much. You're crazy if you don't think all of those are very Nier-esc. Also, I'm echoing the statements that FFIX has the best soundtrack in the series. (plus best game)
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Jan 13, 2013 12:26
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