Manari

I sort of cringed at that trailer... but not nearly as much as I cringed at the reaction most of the internet has had to this news. My reaction to this is mostly just shaking my head and sighing with a "I really should have seen that coming." I'm in the "was hoping for Shovel Knight" camp, because I thought it was a realistic possibility. Cloud? Freaking Cloud? How did this deal even happen? As many have already stated, his game has never even been on a Nintendo system. Well, aside from Theaterhythm I suppose. If that counts. I fully understand that they know Cloud will sell the most DLC, and they are absolutely right. So ka-ching, Nintendo. I will choose to look on the bright side, however. At least it isn't Lightning.

If there are any of the RPers left from early 1.0, we all remember the swarm of RPers that were trying to RP their FFXI characters in FFXIV. Back then, there was no lore that supported this and it was very frowned upon to even attempt it. Then 2 years later the Shantotto event goes and makes this happen. So like most anything, there could be ways to make it work, and if the people you RP with don't mind it, then go right ahead. If you really want to do this, you can of course whip of some of the loose lore thanks to the events we've had with Gilgamesh, Lightning, and of course Shantotto. Also I don't know anything about this new FFXI crossover event that just started as I haven't done it yet. Just be prepared for most characters to assume your character is insane.

Yes. This. Yugiri's hair is about the only thing I would pay money for right now. Her outfit would be a nice bonus, but all I really want is her hair. That begs the question though... Is Menfilia's hair always blonde if you use it? Or can you change the color. I want Yugiri's hair more than anything for Manari, but Manari is blonde, not black haired.

Why would they make Yda's outfit all one piece? It's just the basic pirate shirt with Midlander Hyur underwear and some red heavy armor boots. Oh, and that ugly turban you can buy cheap in the markets anyway. Well, I guess if other races really want those Hyur midlander undies, they can have them along with the rest of Yda's very 1.0-looking outfit.

I can't believe they would sell people Yda or Papalymo outfits anyway. Other than Minfilia and recently Y'shtola who both have gotten new outfits, all the Scions are just wearing a mishmash of old 1.0 gear with something added to ensure you couldn't quite replicate the look. (Yda's red heavy armor boots, or Papalymo's ugly bright yellow heavy metal gauntlets.) I suppose you are paying to wear the Aether goggles then.

Well obviously if I really thought I might be the only one I wouldn't have even bothered to make a thread. I felt it might be a more positive experience if instead of spending energy trying to figure out what the big deal with Fallout 4 is ("Man! What a buncha jokers!") , I could possibly partake in some conversation about a game I /am/ excited for. ("But let's not be careless.")

No, this thread has nothing to to with Super Smash Bros. I'm sure I'm probably alone in the "I'm so sick of hearing about Fallout" corner, but as long as we are super-hyping RPGs, why not another grand sprawling adventure with a huge open world of dangerous creatures and discover to explore? That's right, we are less than a month away from the release of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Nintendo, as usual, is not advertising or hyping this game in the west at all. But I've been playing the 3DS version of Xenoblade Chronicles to get myself ready for the new game next month, and I've been having a blast. It's got interesting and compelling narrative that doesn't constantly hit you over the head with religious symbolism and an overly pretentious plot (Xenosaga). It has a good solid cast of characters that all have well voice acted and amusing dialog and banter both inside and out of combat. ("Now it's Reyn time!") The music is very good nails the atmosphere perfectly. And it has a fun battle system that is not unlike a good MMORPG battle system. Naturally the game isn't perfect. It has some pacing issues, especially in the 2nd half. It's a nightmare for completionists and a lot of work just to earn some of the optional stuff for your characters like their 4th and 5th skill trees. And if you are trying to accomplish these tasks, you'll need to delve heavily into the game's hundreds and hundreds of side quests. These feel straight out of an MMO with the "Collect 5 of these" or "Kill 6 of these" but they have absolutely no quest tracking whatsoever. So you either need to find all the locations yourself, or rely heavily on a wiki or guide. But all in all, it's a very memorable and rewarding RPG experience. Which is why I'm so looking forward to the new game coming next month. Just from what I can tell from the Japanese release, it looks to have improved on Xenoblade Chronicles in nearly every way. It also has a custom player created main character who can be male or female and have many different looks. That's an interesting choice after playing as Shulk in Xenoblade 1. There is some kind of multiplayer element to the game as well, but I haven't looked into its specifics as of yet. Also 4 party members as once instead of 3! That was one of my gripes with Xenoblade 1. I agonized over which party members made the best setup with my playstyle and was constantly switching party members around to see what I liked the most. This will give more room for party set ups and I'm glad to see that 4th party member. So is anyone else eagerly awaiting this game? Or am I the only one who's vision isn't obscured by Fallout 4?

Oh yes! I forgot to mention that too. Elezen heads really are just strangely small. It just adds even more to the odd appearance they have.

It's funny that people are weirded out by neck elongation but are okay with.. Scales Horns Tails Furry ears No eyebrows Oh well. Proud elf guy, here. The difference for me is that even way way back in FFXI, the Elves just have odd proportions. The neck is big part of it. But it's more than that. Their arms are too long, but that might be because their legs are too long as well. Then comes their stances and animations. They are just... well, this is all subjective. It's all my opinion. But I always felt that the stances and animations for Elezen males, especially how they run, are just a little too dainty for me to play one. There is also something I dislike about the different faces they let you pick from. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly, but the only Elezen male in the entire game with a decent looking face is Aymeric. They looks so snooty and angry all the time, and that would be fine. There is just something I can't quite explain about their faces that I dislike. They have some awesome hair options though. And thankfully I can just make a highlander male and use most of the Elezen hair I like on him instead, unlike back in 1.0 when Highlanders only had 4 types of hair, and one of them was just bald.

Was this in addition to the arcade port on Xbox Live, or were they the same thing? I had the XBL version of Smash T.V. but I don't remember it saying anything about being HD. It was just an arcade perfect port with a fancy menu screen added before you start playing.

-pVT_mvvZLo

What this actually means is that Au Ra are really really good at playing Tetris and loading a dishwashing machine efficiently.

Ever since 1.0, I've always felt that any RP'er that isn't able to take Lalafell seriously simply has trouble getting immersed into the world. Lalafell are everywhere in Eorzea, both doing everyday grunt work and holding important positions of power. There is really no reason to treat them ICly like a child, because you never ever see that happen in the lore. It's just the player's OOC thought and feelings on what they see bleeding into their character. The only way this could work in character is if your non-Lalafell character had somehow never encountered Lalafell before, but even so, it would be very insulting to treat an adult Lalafell this way IC. There isn't anything wrong with the Lalafell, they aren't deformed or have any kind of Gary Coleman condition. That is how Lalafell look and it's an accepted part of the in-game world. Now short jokes are a different matter. I think those would really happen in Eorzea, just as jokes about Roegadyn and Elezen sizes and shapes happen as well.

The small Keeper of the Moon girl moved quickly and silently through Gridania, intentionally avoiding any sort of distractions that would keep her from whatever her purpose for entering the town was. She never liked being in the city and wanted to leave as soon as possible. However, something caught her eye as she was walking past the Caroline Canopy. Something that was posted on the walls caused her to stop and examine it. Her large emerald Keeper eyes were focused on the center of the picture while a look of disbelief washed over her youthful face. Those who spent most of their time alone or with animals can tend to develop a habit of speaking aloud to themselves. "This looks like... but surely I am mistaken..." She shook her head as if to shake away the thoughts that were interrupting her original purpose here and began to walk away. "Honestly, I know naught of her anyway... And I do not know what a 'bronco' is either."

The arcade version of Smash T.V. does have a crushing difficulty that can really only be overcome with repeated lives and many quarters. The SNES version, which is the version that I played the most as a kid, is very similar but less punishing due to a few factors. While there are still probably 40-60 enemies on screen at the same time in the SNES version, the arcade version has many many more. The SNES version has 1 or 2 land mines in a room, the arcade version will have 4-5. The SNES version will have 2 of those shrapnel guy that walk around the perimeter of the room and explode. In the arcade version there doesn't seem to be a limit. There are a lot of other examples, especially when you get into the later levels. The 3rd studio is a lot harder in the arcade version than the SNES version. One thing that I always used to get through the game in the SNES version was the secret prize rooms that would warp you right to the boss. I don't think these worked in the arcade version, and if they do, they aren't in the same places. In the bigger parts of stage 2 and 3, there are rooms that you will have to survive waves of enemies for upwards of 10 to 12 minutes at a time before you finally killed everyone and can move on. But as hard as the game is, I always always was having fun while playing it. Honestly, I think the SNES version had the balance of fun and challenging just perfect, while the arcade version, which was a lot louder, bloodier, looked better, was just too hard for the sake of drawing more quarters.

I'm still trying to understand exactly what a Rogue-like is, as I've only started to hear the term in the last few years. Apparently the genre encompasses a lot of older generation JRPGs that I really hated (but are super obscure) like Azure Dreams and Thousand Arms (has nothing to do with Wild ARMs) for PS1, and Time Stalkers for Dreamcast. Man, I hated all of those games. But yes, Smash T.V. was one of the original twin stick shooters with Robotron coming before it, and Total Carnage coming right after it. I, too, have spent hours playing Geometry Wars. I love that game. And I've often wished someone would make a sequel to Smash T.V. When I was going to college for game design, I had plans on making a FPS shooter remake of the game myself, but that didn't pan out. The nods to many classic 80's action movies is very obvious in Smash T.V. The Running Man is a clear inspiration for the storyline, and the game show host in the game uses many memorable quotes from movies like original Robocop. "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

Naming a character takes me hours. Even in Final Fantasy I where I have to name my whole party. I just sit there like it's the most important decision I'll make all year. (not to mention you only get 4 letters per name) But no, Manari Onai means nothing. It's just a name I've used for MMO characters since FFXI that I've had to work into the lore by making it become a name she adopted to make it easier for non-Miqo'te to say her name.

I am a retro gamer. Not because it's a fad or because I'm a hipster, but because those were the games I loved growing up and I still like to play them. This is fairly common as there are many like me. And all the really good retro games are well documented on millions of top 10 or top 100 lists all across the internet. Everyone, even kids who don't play retro games, have heard that games like Super Metroid and Super Mario Bros 3 are some of the best games made before 3D changed things. But there is one game that I played for hours and hours and hours over and over that I've never heard anyone mention in these lists. Now this could very well just be me, but everyone I know who has managed to play this game also loves it. It's a little arcade shooter made by Midway called: Smash T.V. It's your father's twin stick shooter. Not your grandfather's twin stick shooter, because that would be Robotron 2084. No, Smash T.V. only had 2 arcade joysticks for each player as controls. One made your character walk in whatever direction you pushed it, and the other made your character shoot in whatever direction you pushed that one. My fellow classic oldschool arcade gamers will note this is the exact control setup for classic 80's twin stick shooter Robotron 2084. Smash T.V. has the most amazingly 90's set up ever. With some inspiration from 80's action movies thrown in for more awesomeness. The concept is that the year is the distant future of 1999 where Smash T.V. has accurately predicted that mankind has become more violent than ever and loves reality TV. You play a contestant on a game show called Smash T.V. where the object is that you are thrown into a long series of rooms full of traps, hazards, bombs, turrets, thugs, robots, tanks, and many other things that try to actually kill you while you run around avoiding death and shooting them with amazing gun power ups you pick up on the ground. Not only are you supposed to slaughter hundreds of thugs and robots set on killing you, but you also need to pick up the amazing cash and prizes sitting out waiting for a lucky contestant willing to pick them up! You can win things like a NEW VCR or even a MICROWAVE or a Smash T.V. board game! Like any good gameshow, there is a wonderful game show host with personality to spare and 2 lovely show ladies hanging on his arms at all times. He spouts very 90's catch phrases each time you see him. Each room of the game has a clever name that are extremely dated 90's pop culture references. For example, many many rooms have something to do with "turtles". The boss fights are epic quarter munchers. They are hard but exciting and a sight to behold. The gameplay is very fast paced. You never have a moment to rest, not even when you clear a room and have to move to the next, because if you take too long to move to the next room, invincible razor disc things start shooting out of the other doors that hunt you down. The action is relentless and you'll just want to keep playing to see if you can make it to the next room. Get one more free lawn mower, a few more thousands of dollars. Or even see if you can collect enough keys to make it into the mythical Pleasure Dome. And what else? This game was released years before Mortal Kombat and contains far more gallons of blood per minute than even Mortal Kombat X could hope to produce. Granted, it's low res pixelated blood. I present to you a very long video of the entire arcade experience, just to give you further insight to this amazingly addictive game. Prepare to witness a most excellent display of 90's explosions and carnage. PRHSi4hBHSM

Anyone ever play Megaman Powered UP or Megaman Maverick Hunter X on PSP? They were PSP remakes of Megaman 1 and Megaman X1 respectively. They were.... uh.... ok I guess? I liked Megaman Powered Up a lot more than I liked Megaman Maverick Hunter X because I don't really like how slow the game feels with 3D graphics in a side scrolling perspective.

I'm a huge classic Megaman fan and I played each one as it came out starting with the Original on NES. Out of all the classic Megaman games, Megaman X1 and Megaman 2 are my favorites. They have the best balance of soundtrack, gameplay, weapon variety, and difficulty. And for me personally, Megaman X1 is just a masterpiece and the perfect example of how one does a jump to the next generation sequel.

I'm still waiting until they let me use Yugiri's hair. Until then, I'm still using my original 1.0 hair forever.

One of the reasons I chose Keeper of the Moon way back in 1.0 was because one of the only things we knew about them was that they were nocturnal, and I could only play pretty late at night usually. My RP linkshell back in 1.0 would just used EST as the time of day it was in-game as well. And I would always RP Manari as being sleepy and just having woken up when I logged on at night. It always worked really well and I've really enjoyed her being a night owl ever since. Manari just assumes all her Moon-sisters would be the same way and always finds it very odd when she meets a Keeper that isn't nocturnal. I have made her being nocturnal a fun and important part of her character, and I could never go back now.

I would argue with that. White hair has always been pretty darn common from what I've seen. Not really on Hyur too much, but tons and tons of Miqo'te for certain and also a really large number of Elezen for some reason. Even back in FFXI white hair was super common, but you had a lot fewer hair color choices back then, so it was more understandable to have the same as other people. But anyway, I confess that I keep browsing these forums and talking to all my RP friends on Skype yet I haven't been playing the game at all lately. Mostly due to wanting to play other games like MGS5, but also because the actual gameplay element of FFXIV was really losing my interest.

Was SE ever going to do anything with the Warring Triad? You can't just throw in a huge FFVI reference like that simply for decoration. I was heard rumors long ago that the next big raid instance would be FFVI based. Now that it's whatever that boring Void Ark thing is, I just can't help but be disappointed and underwhelmed.

It is impossible not to love Nashu. I've always wanted to know her story since they created Hildibrand and Nashu way back for the Inn room quests in 1.0.... ...when Hildibrand was awful and not funny at all yet. They sure improved him in 2.0.