30 hours in and got team wiped by Hau and his psychic spamming Raichu. Didn't even know that was a thing and 5/6s of my team were one-shotted due to their weakness. I think I'm going to call the Nuzlocke off for now instead of going for a 4th one as I want to finish the game at this point, but I definitely want to beat one day for sure.

Also playing FF15. Got it in the mail from Square store a few days early. 2 hours in and so far, it's not bad.

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Calipha Ghazal died in my playthrough of Crusader Kings II. The date is Azar 20, 773 (December 11, 1394); I have a little less than fifty years before I move on to Europa Universalis IV. I married Ghazal off to a descendant of the Talibids purely so I could get the Sayyid trait for her children. She reigned for almost forty years. Her claim to the throne was disputed almost immediately; Ghazal's younger brother, Ahmad, left for the easternmost reaches of the Mongol Empire shortly after his sister's coronation, hoping to raise an army and press his own claim on the throne by force. His forces were soundly defeated in Central Asia and he spent the rest of his life in a dark cell. Her early reign was further complicated when an administrative misstep thoroughly angered two of her viceroys, leading them to attempt to obstruct her every decision purely out of spite. It was only because they were both very good at their jobs that Ghazal did not dismiss them from her council over their behavior. In 750, Pope Gregorius V declared a crusade for Palestine. Like her grandfather, Ghazal successfully defended the Holy Land, personally leading an army herself. Despite being wounded in one of the battles, she returned to the fray after recovering, staying on the battlefield even when she was pregnant with Morad, her youngest son. All captured enemies were presented with a choice: They could swear an oath in the name of God to never take up arms against the Caliphate again or they could be executed. As her grandfather did in the previous crusade, Ghazal sent an army to Rome as retribution for the Crusade. After securing peace with Pope Gregorius V, Ghazal had to deal with another claimant to her throne. After years of loyal service as her best commander, Ghazal was betrayed by Zia, the eldest of her younger brothers. Like Ahmad, Zia traveled to the Mongol Empire in search of allies. Also like Ahmad, Zia was defeated and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in Ghazal's dungeon, Ghazal herself leading the army that faced his. Ghazal subsequently turned her attention westward and launched a campaign to conquer Mauretania, going so far as to formally declare a jihad against the remnants of the once-powerful Empire of Hispania. With the capture of the mouth of the Bou Regreg, the Caliphate finally had access to the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in centuries. Her final campaign would be against Satrap Manuchihr of Baluchistan, a distant relative who rebelled against Ghazal's rule when the latter attempted to have him arrested for murder. Ghazal died of natural causes during the campaign, leaving her son, Mohammed Valizade, to finish the war.

Mohammed is my twenty-fifth character. The game calls him "Mohammed II," but if we want to be technical about it, Muhammad never held the title of Caliph. The game presumably gave Muhammad that title for mechanics purposes. I suspect Mohammed's son, Mehrzad, will be my final or second-to-final character in this playthrough. I suppose it depends on how long Mohammed lives and how long Mehrzad lives. Mohammed is thirty-three years old, so he'd have to live longer than all of his predecessors to see EU4. Nazgol holds the record, having lived to be seventy-five. Mohammed's son, Mehrzad Mohammedzade, is fifteen, so there's also a pretty good chance that he'll die before EU4, too.

Edit: Mohammed has died. His reign, which lasted almost twenty years, was a violent one; when Mohammed wasn't busy crushing a rebellion, he was defending his title against greedy relatives. Making Mehrzad, Mohammed's eldest son, into a decent heir proved a bit frustrating. For starters, he and his first wife went for several years without producing any children. To increase the chances of procreation, I got him three additional wives (the maximum he is allowed to have). It worked out and he now has six children (though none through his fourth wife). However, things got further complicated when his younger brother, Faraz, joined the Bektashi Order. The Bektashi Order is a monastic order in this game (the real Bektashi Order is not monastic, as Islam does not have a monastic tradition), meaning that Faraz had to avoid marrying as a result. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, and joining was supposed to disinherit him, but when Faraz became Dedebaba of the Bektashi Order, the game's succession mechanic was given priority for some reason. Muslims in Crusader Kings II have a special succession system in which the ruler's highest-ranked child is his/her heir (priority goes to the eldest in the event of multiple heirs of equal rank). Childless Faraz thus became Mohammed's heir. To remedy this, I gave Mehrzad the Satrapy of Kerman, making him equal in rank to Faraz. I normally don't give my children any titles beforehand, as it means risking them doing something stupid before I have control over them. Thankfully, Mehrzad's AI proved competent and he was able to handle his duties without any trouble. Mohammed died from a wasting illness on Esfand 1, 791 (February 20, 1413), less than a month after Pope Ioannes XI demonstrated his failure to learn from his predecessors' mistakes by declaring a crusade.

Mehrzad Mohammedzade, my twenty-sixth character, thus was crowned at a time when Christian rulers were gathering their forces in preparation for another incursion into the Caliphate. I suspect either he or his eldest son, Zahak Mehrzadzade, will be my final character.

Another Edit: Mehrzad died from cancer on Dey 2, 813 (December 23, 1434). I have a little less than ten years in-game before I move on to Europa Universalis IV. Mehrzad spent his early life studying science. His studies called into question some of the beliefs accepted as fact by his more dogmatic subjects. His findings called attention to the rift between the Muʿtazila and Ashʿari schools of thought and may well have given them yet another thing to bicker over. Mehrzad, like most of his predecessors, was a Muʿtazilite, so he pressed on in his studies despite the objections of some of the religious authorities--his being the Caliph likely silenced some of the opposition. His studies were put on hold thanks to the crusade, though. Despite not being a particularly capable fighter or strategist, Mehrzad joined up with two of his best commanders and led an army in besieging Rome. As with the previous two crusades, the Christian invaders were repulsed. Later in his life, Mehrzad dedicated himself to learning how to fight properly; it was due to sheer luck that he never had a chance to embarrass himself on the battlefield during the siege of Rome.

There's still a bit of land I'd like to conquer before my game ends. I see a way to pull it off, but it hinges on the current King of Portugal dying at the right time. Thanks to how the casus belli mechanics work, I can't seize all of Portugal's possessions in Mauretania in just one war. The truce from the next war I declare will last for ten years, but it's with the King of Portugal, not his successor. As such, if the king dies after my next war with him, I'll be able to attack his successor before the game ends. If all goes according to plan, I'll control all of Mauretania just in time for Europa Universalis IV.

Another Edit: I did it. With a little more than a year left to spare, I conquered all of Mauretania. It was a stroke of good luck that Mehrzad died when he did and the King of Portugal died when he did. Technically, the game continues to 1453, but since EU4 starts in 1444, I went ahead and converted my file on November 11, 1444 rather than at the in-game end date. Due to a glitch in the converter, though, all of the territories that are in rebellion are treated as uninhabited in the converted file. I had to manually end every revolt in every country in-game by means of console commands before my file was ready for conversion.

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Having a blast with Final Fantasy 15 for almost 2 weeks now. Had no expectations going into this game and I'm glad to see that it's a very good game. Different than what I'd expect Final Fantasy to feel like, but really good. Kinda get a mixed feeling of Xenoblade Chronicles X with a touch of FF12's hunting and looting system.

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Out of curiosity, what is Noctis' personality like? Squall-esque "Whatever; leave me alone" stoic or more friendly?

C-A

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That's a pretty stellar comparison. At this point I'm probably comfortable buying the game.

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The best way I could say Noctis's personality is right now is just very down to earth. He'll banter off some friendly sarcasm and joke around with his friends here and there as well. Story-wise and character development wise, I'm still unsure really how he is as a character (as I've been side questing more than anything), but with all the flavor dialogue that happens just as they explore and go on side quests and such, I really enjoy his character from that perspective. It's kind of an odd thing to say, but he feels like a human being.

Like, I really can't categorize him into one specific character type other than just saying he's a down to earth guy who jokes with his friends and he comes across as an overall nice dude with a few things that can get under his skin at times just like anyone else. But, I really like Noctis. Just due to the extra dialogue that comes and goes alone, he already feels so fleshed out and I like it. As cliched as it sounds, FF15 really does feel like you're just hanging around with a group of friends. It's different, but I really like it.

But yeah, despite how his character design looks, Noctis is no Squall, far from it. So grateful for that as, I'll admit, that was my first impression of him as well just from seeing his design.

@pierre: The game has definitely been getting good reviews too from what I've seen. I know there have been people anticipating the game and such, but for me personally, this feels like a sleeper hit for me. The battle system is very different, but loads of fun as well. VERY much improved from the demos.

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Sounds like they've struck a winner with Noctis. The thought of a final fantasy game where its basically just a technofantasy road trip with your mates sounds pretty ridiculous its great to hear they lean right onto this more mellow approach.

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I'd personally say that he's the first main protagonist in a main series FF game that I've really liked in quite some time. Last for me was Zidane, though I didn't find Tidus too bad.

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Yeah Vaan and Lightning were forgettable and awful respectively. Serah and Noel...didn't really work together neither.

Got me looking forward to it now

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Don't have a PS4 or Xbone anyway, but so disappointing you can't play as Gladiolus (or however it's written)...

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I was Masuda Methoding on Pokémon ORAS for a shiny Kabuto and after 491 eggs I finally got it! I feel super proud of this accomplishment.

Heard Squeenix is addressing the various problems surrounding the frame rate on the PS4 and adding cutscenes/extra dialogue to help sort out some story stuff that people felt weren't completely answered in the last chapter. They said that various patches will come over the course of the year since they gotta do localizations and voices for the new scenes.

Meanwhile, will wait years for PC version before I can enjoy my first FF.

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Vaan was Tidus 2.0; another pretty boy in the protagonist slot, when he really shouldn't have been there.
Serah was a weak attempt at making her tough like Lightning in the beginning... uh, yeah, making her throw a hissy fit at flan does not count as tough. If anything, it makes her look laughable. (Also, her outfit sucked)
Noel is... basically EVERY J-RPG male protagonist ever. Utter lack of personality.

You know, I kinda wish Square would quit on VII for a while and finally give us a remake of VI. Or V. VI had a ton of stuff in it that was really good! Sidequests, likeable characters, amazing music, a great villain... cast was maybe a tad too large.

C-A

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I'd say Vaan was worse than Tidus. At least Tidus had personality and we got to hear his introspection on things. Vaan is just dour and unfun the whole way through.

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Eh, Vaan could have been worse. We could have had twelve Vaans with identical backstories all accompanying the biggest idiot in the franchise. *cough*type0*cough*

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Tbf FF12 wasn't supposed to have a main character, but they just created Vaan to be a player avatar and main character from a gameplay (not story) perspective, and then designed him just to be as marketable as possible (for the Japanese audience, at least).

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I found Tidus way better than Vaan. At least with Tidus, he was essential to the plot and helped to move the story along. As for whether people like him or not it's a whole different matter.

With Vaan, the story would have been the same if he never existed at all. He contributes nothing and is just there for the ride.

I did read somewhere that at one point, Basch was considered to be the main character, but Square went with making Vaan because they thought players would feel Basch was too old to be the main character.

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Basch or Asche - similar names aside. I mean, it IS kind of her story, what with her reveng and rebellion and such.

C-A

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I have been playing Blazblue: Calamity trigger lately, since an AAO fangame got me interested in it due to a character that appeared in said game. Game has actually been pretty good so far, the story is way better than I expected from a fighting game. Also Tao is def the best character.

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Hoho yeah Blazblue is my jam.

I heard it was originally planned as an RPG but then they went and made it into a fighting game hence why the story is so intricate.

Bang Shishigami is the hero we need.

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I got a good laugh out of this incident from my Crusader Kings II playthrough.



I'm working on editing my converted EU4 file to make sure none of the countries have silly names. Dynastic names in particular need to be nixed since there's a decent chance several dynasties will die out.

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Replaying Ghost Trick now. It's so fun and I love it to death, a pity it didn't get more attention

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I'm playing the Resident Evil 7 demo. I like the direction they're taking, but replaying the whole thing for multiple endings makes the experience go from "this is kinda creepy" to "do I have to watch the whole video again?" real quick.

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Playing through Persona Q right now - currently I'm close to the end of the Evil Spirit Club labyrinth. I haven't played any Etrian Odyssey, so Q is a pretty interesting experience gameplay-wise. I like how many options there are in terms of party setups and strategies, although that also means that there are a couple instances when I come across an enemy that my current party setup isn't prepared for (at the moment, the enemies that use Wind/Elec/Fire/Ice Corrosion and then spam the respective medium group spell are giving me a bit of trouble). I'm also really enjoying the character interactions between the Investigation Team and SEES. Some of the characters feel kind of simplified in terms of personality compared to how they were in their original games (hey Chie, talk about steak some more please), but it's cool to see how the Investigation Team members interact with SEES and vice-versa. It feels a bit like "Persona Lite," but I'm having fun with it.

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They do that? Like...how do they implement that, it seems like such a weird direction for an action game. That's the kinda thing that's normally reserved for Visual novels ain't it?



It absolutely is Persona Lite but it's plenty fine and I really enjoyed it. So here's a super ridiculous trick if you want to almost-break the game with a ridiculously strong strategy:

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Speaking of Persona, I'm playing Persona 4 right now. I just started Mitsuo Kubo's dungeon. I like the void quest theme. So far, I'm having the most fun with dungeons and just the story in general. The Social Links are interesting but sometimes they seem a bit like filler. My favorite characters so far would probably be Yosuke and Kanji, but it's hard to choose a favorite from the investigation team. I've seen the Persona 4 anime, so I pretty much know the whole story. I'm excited to do Naoto's dungeon next, and get the whole team together.

@sumguy28 Does Resident Evil still exist? They fucked up the series so bad with 5 and 6, that I kind of thought nobody was taking it seriously anymore. Well, at least it seems they aren't going to bring the same old boring protagonists in RE7, which is a (small) good sign.

From what I've played of the demo, RE7 could be better than REmake. Mind you, it's no Silent Hills (rip), but this is likely going to be the next best thing.

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Last edited by TheDoctor on Sat Dec 24, 2016 10:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

As it turns out, RE7 realized that no one was taking them seriously and instead opted for making an actual survival horror game instead of the more action-y direction of 5 and 6. (though I thought Revelations was okay as long as it was still on the ship which is only half of the game so I guess it's still a miss)
I'd say more, but the I'll let the announcement trailer do the talking.

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Ok...well it isn't all that recognisable as a Resident evil game I'd say. Almost looks like a Ghost Horror game rather than a zombie horror game.

Huh...

Well sure it's pretty chilling.

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Prepare for a boring month of nothing but filler before that.
Well, at least it isn't the MOST BORING MONTH OF THE GAME, like in Persona 3... just WHAT Atlus was thinking when they made the pacing in P3...

Started Pokémon Moon again (technically, started on the 12th, but due to illness I didn't continue until now) and picked Litten, again. It's Adamant! And I hate Lillie more and more; it really feels like SHE is the protagonist in this game, not my character.

C-A

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Oh boy. Thanks for the heads up. I actually haven't played Persona 3, but I hear the final battle is a real pain in that one.
I actually started Pokemon Moon today too, and I just happened to have picked Litten as well. I haven't gotten far at all in the game, but I'm enjoying it so far.

Which one? One of them is basically one long hand-holding of what you need to do while everyone talks to you (Power of Fwiendship and bla bla whatever), so that's pretty easy. And I never felt like the previous 'final battle' was that difficult. Especially since half of it is super easy to bypass, because the HP wasn't properly aligned.

C-A

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Oh ok, haha. Guess I don't really know anything about it after all. I've only heard a few things about it from friends who have played it. Just wondering, did you enjoy Persona 3 or Persona 4 more?

I think most people enjoyed Persona 4 more. Mostly better social links, much better plot, and more likable team members (or at least, I don't hear people complaining about them as much).

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People who prefer Persona 3 over Persona 4 are currently living in Antarctica

@sumguy28 Revelations 2 was sooooo copying The Last of Us, lol. Resident Evil 5 and 6 are good games to laugh at... RE6's plot is not much distant from a cheap American action movie... like that thing of Leon working for the "president of the USA", lol. So cliché. Chris' scenario was the worst, with his irrational anger directed towards "Ada", and that scene where he is depressed and drunk... it is like they were trying to make him "psychologically deep" or something.

Hahaha, I HATED Persona 3.
And I played the Persona-4-infused Portable version of it.
Still sucks.

C-A

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I'm finally playing SoJ myself, now that I have a 3ds.

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Not a Call of Duty fan by any means, but I got Infinite Warfare for Christmas and decided to try it out, and god damn, the campaign is hella good.

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Congrats on the 3DS! Hope you have a good time with it.


I'm playing Pillar's of Eternity. It is beautifully like Baldur's Gate.

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