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Post by OttselHero on Mar 6, 2017 14:02:07 GMT -5
I've finished the story in Final Fantasy XV. Though the game offers plenty of post-game quests, the ending has put me in a state of withdrawal. Well, that is the Mark of a great game. Completing the Mass Effect Trilogy had that effect on me. Come to think of it, the release date for that is almost upon us! While it does have something to do with how the game ends, it's not so much about what happens versus how it's executed. I feel like the resolution could have been dragged out a lot longer. Essentially, you beat the final boss, there's a brief cutscene, then the credits roll and that's it (with a couple of epilogues interspersed throughout). I think I'd feel better about it if I stuck to the story from beginning to end since I've heard that it could be beaten in about 20 hours, but I performed every side quest that opened up along the way, thus clocking me in at 60 hours when I finished it; I kinda wish that the resolution reflected the time I put into the game. But yes, Final Fantasy XV is a very great game nonetheless, though not so much because of the story. I fell in love with the environments the game had to offer as well as the side quests that motivated me to explore them. The cherry on top, in my opinion, is the witty banter that occurs between the four friends as you're adventuring. Some exchanges are a little repetitive, but I don't tire of them, especially when Ignis comes up with a new recipe, which happens just about every time you pick up a new ingredient (which is often).
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Post by OttselHero on Nov 23, 2017 12:43:29 GMT -5
I resumed my Master Quest run of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time after finishing Final Fantasy III last month. I'm at the Bottom of the Well right now. So far the game hasn't been terribly challenging, save for a particular puzzle in the Water Temple whose solution made no sense; it was mostly just trial and error until something randomly worked. I do like that dungeons are riddled with tougher enemies (coupled with the fact that you take double damage in this mode). Since the Forest Temple, the game has thrown middle bosses at me as if they were normal enemy types; it's become common for the game to throw several Stalfoses at me at a time.
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Post by Tross on Nov 23, 2017 15:03:57 GMT -5
Cool, I just snagged the Dishonored Complete Collection on PSN for less than $45CAD, which is regular priced like $110. So...yeah, I just started playing that.
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Post by OttselHero on Dec 2, 2017 11:25:46 GMT -5
Cool, I just snagged the Dishonored Complete Collection on PSN for less than $45CAD, which is regular priced like $110. So...yeah, I just started playing that. I can't help but think of this every time I hear that game's name: How is it so far? I remember being mildly intrigued before the first one came out, but never enough to commit to buying it.
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Post by Tross on Dec 5, 2017 20:19:52 GMT -5
Cool, I just snagged the Dishonored Complete Collection on PSN for less than $45CAD, which is regular priced like $110. So...yeah, I just started playing that. I can't help but think of this every time I hear that game's name: How is it so far? I remember being mildly intrigued before the first one came out, but never enough to commit to buying it. Well, I'm going for the platinum and I almost never platinum games. The first game only has one playable character, but it's kind of like two games rolled into one. There's a different ending depending on whether you choose to go for high chaos (a large death toll), or low chaos (a low or non-existent death toll). Some of the dialogue changes too, and other minor events are slightly different. Also, the very last mission plays out very differently depending on which route you choose. You can also choose to be stealthy or just go in guns blazing. Some degree of stealth helps though as enemies tend to call others over if they spot you and taking on multiple guys is more difficult than just taking out a few. The stealth or not stealth angle can have minor effects on certain dialogue and events too, but it doesn't influence the ending. Most significantly though, the game plays differently depending on how you choose to go about missions. It's also way more difficult if you go for the platinum. On my first playthrough I went for a stealthy/non-lethal playthrough and in order to get all the trophies for that I had to never be spotted and never kill anyone. On this playthrough I'm trying to find all the hidden paintings in the game, get the trophy for killing enemies using at least one of each weapon, and the one for never purchasing any powers and only having access to the level 1 skill gained in a cutscene near the start of the game. That last one makes the game pretty challenging, but at least I can be spotted and am actually trying to kill enemies. The first playthrough was tougher as I literally had to save spam like crazy. This time I don't have to do it quite as much. I will also have to do one more at least partial playthrough as there are trophies that require powers I can't use thanks to the trophy I'm going for this time, almost all of which have to be done on a lethal playthrough.
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Post by Tross on Dec 7, 2017 15:38:20 GMT -5
Ok, so I managed to get the platinum without doing a third playthrough. I just reloaded past saves and bought all the powers I didn't have on my second playthrough as I had already obtained the trophy for completing the game without them. I was going to see about getting 100% of the trophies in the DLC, but one DLC is essentially a difficult series of challenges, and I'm not particularly into that sort of content or what it would take to get all the trophies for it. None of these trophies count towards the platinum anyways, which I already have. I might try to 100% the other DLCs, as they're both story-based and much more in line with the base game, but I'll see. At least the challenges are DLC as my disdain for that sort of thing is why I've never platinumed any of the Batman Arkham games.
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Post by OttselHero on Dec 10, 2017 18:39:08 GMT -5
Ok, so I managed to get the platinum without doing a third playthrough. I just reloaded past saves and bought all the powers I didn't have on my second playthrough as I had already obtained the trophy for completing the game without them. I was going to see about getting 100% of the trophies in the DLC, but one DLC is essentially a difficult series of challenges, and I'm not particularly into that sort of content or what it would take to get all the trophies for it. None of these trophies count towards the platinum anyways, which I already have. I might try to 100% the other DLCs, as they're both story-based and much more in line with the base game, but I'll see. At least the challenges are DLC as my disdain for that sort of thing is why I've never platinumed any of the Batman Arkham games. I've done a bit of trophy hunting for the first EA Star Wars: Battlefront. Or at least just the single player trophies since I don't have a PS Plus account to play online. I think I have all of the possible ones, I just don't have any of the trophies pertaining to completing Survival missions on Master difficulty (I would most certainly need a second player for that, and a skilled one at that). Otherwise, I'm nearing the end of my Master Quest run in Ocarina of Time. I just cleared the Spirit Temple, so that really just leaves the final dungeon and Ganondorf.
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Post by Tross on Dec 14, 2017 14:27:20 GMT -5
Ok, so I managed to get the platinum without doing a third playthrough. I just reloaded past saves and bought all the powers I didn't have on my second playthrough as I had already obtained the trophy for completing the game without them. I was going to see about getting 100% of the trophies in the DLC, but one DLC is essentially a difficult series of challenges, and I'm not particularly into that sort of content or what it would take to get all the trophies for it. None of these trophies count towards the platinum anyways, which I already have. I might try to 100% the other DLCs, as they're both story-based and much more in line with the base game, but I'll see. At least the challenges are DLC as my disdain for that sort of thing is why I've never platinumed any of the Batman Arkham games. I've done a bit of trophy hunting for the first EA Star Wars: Battlefront. Or at least just the single player trophies since I don't have a PS Plus account to play online. I think I have all of the possible ones, I just don't have any of the trophies pertaining to completing Survival missions on Master difficulty (I would most certainly need a second player for that, and a skilled one at that). Otherwise, I'm nearing the end of my Master Quest run in Ocarina of Time. I just cleared the Spirit Temple, so that really just leaves the final dungeon and Ganondorf. I'm assuming you won't be going for the platinum in Battlefront II, lol. That reminds me, I have both of the 3DS ports of the N64 Zelda games in my backlog. I ran into an annoying snag with the Dishonored DLC, after having such a great time in my lethal playthrough of The Knife of Dunwall. My assassination target stepped out for air on his balcony and I was on the roof across from him. One explosive bolt later and he was dead without me even having to enter his domain. Then the General who was supposed to meet with him showed up with his Private, and an Estate Guard greeted him. The General complained about the Barrister not coming out and the Estate Guard informed him he was assassinated. The General said when he gets his hands on whoever did it...and then a well thrown grenade, courtesy of me, took out all three of them. It was way too easy. That guy's supposed to be a General, implying he's a war veteran? Anyways, I overwrote my stealth/non-lethal save file as I assumed, like with the main game, I wouldn't be needing it. However, I then found out that my upgrades, inventory and chaos level, among other things, can be carried over into the next DLC and in fact, it's recommended I do that. So, I had to do another stealthy/non-lethal playthrough while trying not to overwrite my lethal save, since I want to do a run of both in Brigmore Witches. Well, that's finally done now, so I can finally play the last DLC, probably later today. I had a bit of moment when I found out I needed the data I got rid of that I would best describe as a combination of Rarity's "of all the things that could happen", and Spike's "why?", and maybe his "noooooo". I could probably find YouTube clips of all three but I don't feel like it.
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Post by OttselHero on Dec 15, 2017 12:53:05 GMT -5
I've done a bit of trophy hunting for the first EA Star Wars: Battlefront. Or at least just the single player trophies since I don't have a PS Plus account to play online. I think I have all of the possible ones, I just don't have any of the trophies pertaining to completing Survival missions on Master difficulty (I would most certainly need a second player for that, and a skilled one at that). Otherwise, I'm nearing the end of my Master Quest run in Ocarina of Time. I just cleared the Spirit Temple, so that really just leaves the final dungeon and Ganondorf. I'm assuming you won't be going for the platinum in Battlefront II, lol. That reminds me, I have both of the 3DS ports of the N64 Zelda games in my backlog. I ran into an annoying snag with the Dishonored DLC, after having such a great time in my lethal playthrough of The Knife of Dunwall. My assassination target stepped out for air on his balcony and I was on the roof across from him. One explosive bolt later and he was dead without me even having to enter his domain. Then the General who was supposed to meet with him showed up with his Private, and an Estate Guard greeted him. The General complained about the Barrister not coming out and the Estate Guard informed him he was assassinated. The General said when he gets his hands on whoever did it...and then a well thrown grenade, courtesy of me, took out all three of them. It was way too easy. That guy's supposed to be a General, implying he's a war veteran? Anyways, I overwrote my stealth/non-lethal save file as I assumed, like with the main game, I wouldn't be needing it. However, I then found out that my upgrades, inventory and chaos level, among other things, can be carried over into the next DLC and in fact, it's recommended I do that. So, I had to do another stealthy/non-lethal playthrough while trying not to overwrite my lethal save, since I want to do a run of both in Brigmore Witches. Well, that's finally done now, so I can finally play the last DLC, probably later today. I had a bit of moment when I found out I needed the data I got rid of that I would best describe as a combination of Rarity's "of all the things that could happen", and Spike's "why?", and maybe his "noooooo". I could probably find YouTube clips of all three but I don't feel like it. Haha, naw, I'll wait until Black Friday next year to pick up Battlefront II. That's how I got the first one last year. It was only $10 so I figured it was worth picking up just to have a game to play for when friends come visit. I'm definitely glad that I didn't pay full price for it, though, because it is seriously lacking in content. I hope Battlefront II offers more for offline play, however. I can't seem to find out how much there is to do since all of the reviews seem to be more focused on the multiplayer and microtransactions. But again, that's why I only want to fork over $10 for it when it does indeed drop that far. I've since completed my Master Quest run of Ocarina of Time. It felt incredibly rewarding to figure out the puzzles within Ganon's Tower; they were pretty tough, and it was almost tempting to find one of the solutions online (I was missing the last small key for a little while, so it took quite a bit of backtracking). I also think that the final boss(es) had more HP than in the original game. The other bosses in the game went down as quickly as I expected, but Ganondorf took quite a bit of damage before he went down. It was kind of an intense battle as a result. And of course Jak X: Combat Racing came out on PS4 this week, so I had to pick that up. The nostalgia is strong with this one. This is the first PS2 classic that I bought on PS4, so I'm definitely seeing the difference between an HD remaster and an upscaled port. The game is by no means in HD, it's just blown up to the resolution of HDTV's without comprising the game's original quality. So it's in standard definition, but it doesn't look as bad as though I were to play my PS2 copy on the same TV. But otherwise, the game makes me feel like a retired racing veteran reliving the glory days. Despite it having been years since I last touched it, I've been scoring gold medals left and right as if I never stopped playing. I also have Episode Ignis downloaded for Final Fantasy XV, but seeing as I'm currently busy with Jak X, it'll be some time before I get around to it.
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Post by OttselHero on Jan 14, 2018 12:00:24 GMT -5
I platinum'd Jak X: Combat Racing and finally started Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis. So far it's good, but it's carrying on one of the few gripes I had about the main game; the music, more often than not, overpowers the dialogue so I can't hear what's being said. I suppose I can change this in the options menu, but the default setting should be better adjusted than this.
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Post by Tross on Jan 17, 2018 15:31:48 GMT -5
Well, I finally finished Dishonored 2 with one character and just have to do the last mission with the other. Then, I'll do a lethal playthrough with them both. Then, I'll play Death of the Outsider and I can finally be done with that series. It's great and highly recommended, but I'm experiencing series burnout right now and really want to get to the games I got over Christmas.
Dishonored 2 improves on the original in every way, aside from the heart no longer speaking through the Dualshock 4's speaker, and if you choose to play as both characters it gets repetitive. It's easily longer than the first game. Maybe not longer if you add in the DLC for the first game, but longer than the main game. Playing through it twice just makes it longer, and I went for a stealthy/non-lethal playthrough with both characters, making mostly the same choices, meaning I'll have to play through the game at least a third time, if not two more times. There are more events here that have small effects on the ending, but I'm not going to try and see them all. I may not even platinum this one.
It took me 30 hours of recorded time with Emily as that's who I've been doing missions with first, which according to my status screen is more like 50 hours in all the time I've played. Corvo I've spent less time with as I tend to know where things are already when I go through stages with him, but it still probably will have taken me a good 30 hours with him including unrecorded time (which accounts for reloading). Rather than going through the game with one character than doing the other, I decided to just alternate between the two playthroughs by doing a stage with Emily, then with Corvo. If you're not a completionist, it's recommended to just play through as one character, and Emily is the default and canon character. Moreover, the story makes more sense if she's the main character and the game seems to be designed around her skillset first and foremost. Corvo plays like he does in the first game so I thought it would be difficult to get used to Emily's skills, but I've actually had more of a challenge getting through stages with Corvo's skills instead of Emily's. It could be because I'm using Emily first, but I played as Corvo all through the first game (since he's the only playable character there), and Daud in the DLC plays fairly similar to Corvo.
Sorry for the long rant. I've really enjoyed this series. I just don't necessarily recommend stacking both games, or if you do, maybe don't try too hard for the Ghost trophy. I basically had to reload every time I got caught in my stealthy/non-lethal playthrough in both games, so it's pretty much save-spamming the series. On top of not getting caught, I had to reload if I accidentally killed anyone. Yes, sleep-darting someone and having them fall off the ledge they're on and die counts as killing them. As such my lethal/I don't care if I get caught playthrough is way quicker and easier, even if I go for the Flesh and Steel trophy (beat the game without acquiring any powers) and/or try to get every collectible. I think the games would be a lot faster if I had just been content with going for low chaos and high chaos playthroughs and didn't care about trophies. With low chaos you can accidentally kill up to a certain number of people and still be ok. With high chaos it doesn't matter.
Edit: looks like I misread the time stat as it doesn't include unrecorded time and is actually a combination of the recorded time for both playthroughs, so that's 50 hours of recorded time over two save files. Still a long game.
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Post by OttselHero on Jan 20, 2018 11:35:00 GMT -5
Well, I finally finished Dishonored 2 with one character and just have to do the last mission with the other. Then, I'll do a lethal playthrough with them both. Then, I'll play Death of the Outsider and I can finally be done with that series. It's great and highly recommended, but I'm experiencing series burnout right now and really want to get to the games I got over Christmas. Dishonored 2 improves on the original in every way, aside from the heart no longer speaking through the Dualshock 4's speaker, and if you choose to play as both characters it gets repetitive. It's easily longer than the first game. Maybe not longer if you add in the DLC for the first game, but longer than the main game. Playing through it twice just makes it longer, and I went for a stealthy/non-lethal playthrough with both characters, making mostly the same choices, meaning I'll have to play through the game at least a third time, if not two more times. There are more events here that have small effects on the ending, but I'm not going to try and see them all. I may not even platinum this one. It took me 30 hours of recorded time with Emily as that's who I've been doing missions with first, which according to my status screen is more like 50 hours in all the time I've played. Corvo I've spent less time with as I tend to know where things are already when I go through stages with him, but it still probably will have taken me a good 30 hours with him including unrecorded time (which accounts for reloading). Rather than going through the game with one character than doing the other, I decided to just alternate between the two playthroughs by doing a stage with Emily, then with Corvo. If you're not a completionist, it's recommended to just play through as one character, and Emily is the default and canon character. Moreover, the story makes more sense if she's the main character and the game seems to be designed around her skillset first and foremost. Corvo plays like he does in the first game so I thought it would be difficult to get used to Emily's skills, but I've actually had more of a challenge getting through stages with Corvo's skills instead of Emily's. It could be because I'm using Emily first, but I played as Corvo all through the first game (since he's the only playable character there), and Daud in the DLC plays fairly similar to Corvo. Sorry for the long rant. I've really enjoyed this series. I just don't necessarily recommend stacking both games, or if you do, maybe don't try too hard for the Ghost trophy. I basically had to reload every time I got caught in my stealthy/non-lethal playthrough in both games, so it's pretty much save-spamming the series. On top of not getting caught, I had to reload if I accidentally killed anyone. Yes, sleep-darting someone and having them fall off the ledge they're on and die counts as killing them. As such my lethal/I don't care if I get caught playthrough is way quicker and easier, even if I go for the Flesh and Steel trophy (beat the game without acquiring any powers) and/or try to get every collectible. I think the games would be a lot faster if I had just been content with going for low chaos and high chaos playthroughs and didn't care about trophies. With low chaos you can accidentally kill up to a certain number of people and still be ok. With high chaos it doesn't matter. Edit: looks like I misread the time stat as it doesn't include unrecorded time and is actually a combination of the recorded time for both playthroughs, so that's 50 hours of recorded time over two save files. Still a long game. Yeah, I feel you on trophies that take a little too much effort to make the platinum worth it. Lately I've been thinking that trophies that make a chore shouldn't be worth chasing after. I sorta came to that epiphany with Jak X: Combat Racing recently. There are trophies for collecting all wheels, antennae, helmets, reels, and 50% of all vehicle upgrades. Doing all of that requires serious orb grinding, and the fastest way to do that is to play 1v1 against AI in Capture The Power Cell over...and over...and over... for probably a week (1 hour or so per day). I told myself that after Jak X I wouldn't do that anymore. I don't mind trophies that test my skill (i.e. the "A New Protagonist" trophy in Episode Ignis that I am currently working on), but trophies that waste my time like the aforementioned Jak X trophies should be left alone until they are naturally earned through casual multiplayer matches in the future. Though when it comes to franchises I deeply care about, I will likely feel obligated to chase after the platinum, which would negate the entire argument I just made.
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Post by Tross on Jan 22, 2018 1:13:32 GMT -5
Well, I finally finished Dishonored 2 with one character and just have to do the last mission with the other. Then, I'll do a lethal playthrough with them both. Then, I'll play Death of the Outsider and I can finally be done with that series. It's great and highly recommended, but I'm experiencing series burnout right now and really want to get to the games I got over Christmas. Dishonored 2 improves on the original in every way, aside from the heart no longer speaking through the Dualshock 4's speaker, and if you choose to play as both characters it gets repetitive. It's easily longer than the first game. Maybe not longer if you add in the DLC for the first game, but longer than the main game. Playing through it twice just makes it longer, and I went for a stealthy/non-lethal playthrough with both characters, making mostly the same choices, meaning I'll have to play through the game at least a third time, if not two more times. There are more events here that have small effects on the ending, but I'm not going to try and see them all. I may not even platinum this one. It took me 30 hours of recorded time with Emily as that's who I've been doing missions with first, which according to my status screen is more like 50 hours in all the time I've played. Corvo I've spent less time with as I tend to know where things are already when I go through stages with him, but it still probably will have taken me a good 30 hours with him including unrecorded time (which accounts for reloading). Rather than going through the game with one character than doing the other, I decided to just alternate between the two playthroughs by doing a stage with Emily, then with Corvo. If you're not a completionist, it's recommended to just play through as one character, and Emily is the default and canon character. Moreover, the story makes more sense if she's the main character and the game seems to be designed around her skillset first and foremost. Corvo plays like he does in the first game so I thought it would be difficult to get used to Emily's skills, but I've actually had more of a challenge getting through stages with Corvo's skills instead of Emily's. It could be because I'm using Emily first, but I played as Corvo all through the first game (since he's the only playable character there), and Daud in the DLC plays fairly similar to Corvo. Sorry for the long rant. I've really enjoyed this series. I just don't necessarily recommend stacking both games, or if you do, maybe don't try too hard for the Ghost trophy. I basically had to reload every time I got caught in my stealthy/non-lethal playthrough in both games, so it's pretty much save-spamming the series. On top of not getting caught, I had to reload if I accidentally killed anyone. Yes, sleep-darting someone and having them fall off the ledge they're on and die counts as killing them. As such my lethal/I don't care if I get caught playthrough is way quicker and easier, even if I go for the Flesh and Steel trophy (beat the game without acquiring any powers) and/or try to get every collectible. I think the games would be a lot faster if I had just been content with going for low chaos and high chaos playthroughs and didn't care about trophies. With low chaos you can accidentally kill up to a certain number of people and still be ok. With high chaos it doesn't matter. Edit: looks like I misread the time stat as it doesn't include unrecorded time and is actually a combination of the recorded time for both playthroughs, so that's 50 hours of recorded time over two save files. Still a long game. Yeah, I feel you on trophies that take a little too much effort to make the platinum worth it. Lately I've been thinking that trophies that make a chore shouldn't be worth chasing after. I sorta came to that epiphany with Jak X: Combat Racing recently. There are trophies for collecting all wheels, antennae, helmets, reels, and 50% of all vehicle upgrades. Doing all of that requires serious orb grinding, and the fastest way to do that is to play 1v1 against AI in Capture The Power Cell over...and over...and over... for probably a week (1 hour or so per day). I told myself that after Jak X I wouldn't do that anymore. I don't mind trophies that test my skill (i.e. the "A New Protagonist" trophy in Episode Ignis that I am currently working on), but trophies that waste my time like the aforementioned Jak X trophies should be left alone until they are naturally earned through casual multiplayer matches in the future. Though when it comes to franchises I deeply care about, I will likely feel obligated to chase after the platinum, which would negate the entire argument I just made. Actually, I ended up clocking in at just under 48 hours as I just ran through the last two stages with the other character. Still, I'm feeling sick of this game. Maybe I should play through the follow-up game and be done with it. We'll see.
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Post by OttselHero on Jan 22, 2018 20:50:41 GMT -5
A friend gifted me a copy of Stardew Valley recently, so I started playing that. It's difficult to communicate why, but it's so addicting and relaxing. It's a great game to unwind with.
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Post by OttselHero on Jan 27, 2018 15:02:35 GMT -5
It took me a while, but I finally got around to finishing the story mode in Dissidia: Duodecim. The final boss was waaay easier than in the original. The second half of Duodecim is the same story as the first one but with an improved story progression system (i.e. there is an overworld to explore as opposed to just moving your character around on a chess board). It also adds the ability to assemble a party of 5 characters for the back half of that story, which was what made Chaos a much less infuriating boss. In the original, you had to defeat Chaos 3 times consecutively or else you had to start over at Round 1 (this took MANY tries as I recall). Duodecim is the same, except you have 5 people to fall back on, so it was easy enough just to chip away at his HP with each character and select the option to accept defeat in order to move on to the next character. With this, I was able to beat him on my first attempt (if you consider my "first attempt" as expending 3 characters before delivering the finishing blow with my 4th).
So now I'm primed and pumped for Dissidia NT next week. Let's hope that the game is better than it looks. I'll keep you posed on what I think of the game once I've spent some time with it. Though people who received advanced copies are saying that they vastly preferred Duodecim.
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