Tell your friends about Lusipurr.com today!
Lusipurr, Ethos, and SiliconNooB scrape the bottom of the barrel to find news worth reporting. As the end-of-year playthrough approaches, the panelists appeal to readers to comment and spread the word about the site. Step up and tell your friends today!
SKSIt’s a foggy & damp Monday morning :*(
But TSM 289 is out, so all is right with the world :*D
Hahaha.. COME AT ME MONDAY !!
Andrew 'Mel' MelconBut Lusi that’s a MMMFF group.
Lusipurr@Mel: Nope, look closely! It’s a gay couple, and a menage-a-trois!
DiceAdmiralInfo Blast Develops Intelligence! It Does Nothing.
This week’s panel
Ethos
Silicon Noob
Lusipurr
Not featuring:
Bup
Donators
Cumulative total record holder: Imitanis
Single Donation record holder: Imitanis
Donators eligible for drawing:
Greg H.
John V.
Matthew D.
John M.
Brett W.
Aram Z.
Peter V.
Billy B.
Les E.
Martin B.
Jeremy V.
Simon H.
Reading Raffle:
Donate $5+ and be entered to win one of the podcast-read books. One entry per $5 entered.
This aught to be a feature too, since you took the rules out of the podcast post.
Fall Playthrough
Vagrant Story
Begins in October
Hiring Drive
This STILL isn’t a feature. C’Mon, are you so hurting for staff that there’s no one available to make this a feature? I’d apply, but writing the IB is as much time as I can devote to writing for this site as it is.
Hype and Go Seek
None this week
<!– Answer –>
Musical Interlude
None this week
Lusi V. Bup
None this week. What’s with the content-light podcast this week? Did you run out of time in editing or just forget? Might I recommend a podcast agenda to cover the later case?
End Lusi V. Bup
Cricket
Yorkshire wins county championship
Smash Wii U accepts 3DS as controller
I would be really annoyed if I have to unlock characters on both games. Nintendo consoles have allowed data transfer before, though Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is the only first party example that comes to mind.
3DS ashtray no longer supported
That is really dumb. I wonder if there’s a technical restriction on how the nub works vs the circle pad.
Watchdogs coming to Wii U
No one is going to buy this. Did Assassins Creed or CoD sell at all on Wii U? Both made an appearance, but I doubt the sales were worth comment.
Shadow of Mordor delayed for 360/ps3
Kingdom Hearts looking for developers for KH3
I only ever played the GBA Kingdom Hearts game. It was pretty fun, but the story was utter nonsense. I imagine the others are similar?
There won’t be a Sims 5
I dunno, if no one at all bought Sims 4 then I think the franchise might actually disappear. The difference is that Sims 4 is pretty much guaranteed to sell at least enough to fund the next itteration of the franchise.
Browser Games for XBone
I’m so used to typing XBone for the name of this system that looking up news stories for it has become difficult as no one else I’d link to seems to refer to it as such.
Microsoft buys Minecraft
I doubt MS will get their investment back on this one without alienating the audience. 10 Pickaxes for only $5! *BEST DEAL*
XBone 3rd worst console launch ever in Japan
I knew it would be bad, but not this bad.
NPD August
I guess Mario Kart 8 isn’t selling very well. I expected to find it on this list.
PSP on PSN in Europe: it won’t be much longer
This happens with old consoles, not surprising.
Amiibo patent
Skylanders + Pokemon = $$$$$
I will not participate in this. I MIGHT get some of the Smash Bros characters if the figures are cool, but probably not pokemon.
Imitanis Literature Corner
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
“Where they could barely be seen were the percussionists” The ideal place for percussionists.
Imitanis Gaming Moment
Fire Emblem: Playing FE:A on Non-perma death mode really neuters the Fire Emblem experience. It’s such a core part of the series that playing without is not even really the same game.
I didn’t play Fire Emblem, or D&D unfortunately, but I did play Primordial Soup, a game about moving abstract polygons representing cartoonish amoebae through the eponymous primordial soup trying to eat, poop, and not starve. Players are in charge of up to 7 amoebae which all must eat in order to not starve. Players will move their amoebae around the board attempting to find spaces with enough food to supply their increasing numbers. Points are awarded for the number of surviving amoebae and for the number of mutation cards that a player has. Some mutations give players certain powers like making eating (parasitism) or moving (speed) easier, while some (intelligence) are useless mechanically but serve to increase the mutation count for points. The game is pretty amusing, but is probably a bit longer than it needs to be. It can be pretty fun to move into the one spot that your opponent can eat and scoop up everything just because you can. The game can be pretty punishing for those attempting to acquire mutations as every turn you may have to discard some of them to meet a new limit card. Another complaint is that aside from art on the box and cards, there really is no theme. It is very nearly an abstract game about moving colored shapes around to pick up and drop off cubes. It gets a mild recommendation but is not as much fun as I would like for a game of that length. It could use either a bit more mechanical bite to make it more interesting or a bit less to make it faster.
Blast Away LusiParasites!
NOTE: I’m removing the links to Twitch and Events Schedule as both are easily findable on the site side-bar.
DiceAdmiralHmm, your HTML parser doesn’t recognize comments. I’ll have to remove them entirely in the future.
Lusipurr@DiceCaptain:
Reading Raffle: “This aught to be a feature too, since you took the rules out of the podcast post.”
OUGHT.
There’s a reason for this. The Reading Raffle is now a running thing whenever there is a reading: we’d have to have a feature up for every reading. It’s easier just to mention it on the podcast (since that’s where people listen to the reading, anyway).
Hiring for two positions: “This STILL isn’t a feature. C’Mon, are you so hurting for staff that there’s no one available to make this a feature?”
It’s being rewritten by several staff members, and we can’t finish it until some background decisions are made. So, it has to wait.
Lusi V. Bup
None this week.
Only three were commissioned. They’re all done!
Did you run out of time in editing or just forget? Might I recommend a podcast agenda to cover the later case?
Neither. We’ve dropped the musical interlude, and the Poetical Reviews won’t be ready until mid-October/early-November. We were still overtime despite this: the podcast is meant to be an hour long, and we’ve been running well over lately. We do use an agenda, otherwise no one would know what to talk about.
Did Assassins Creed or CoD sell at all on Wii U?
Someone… somewhere…
I’m so used to typing XBone for the name of this system that looking up news stories for it has become difficult as no one else I’d link to seems to refer to it as such.
I was discussing creating a Lusipurr.com Glossary for the site last night, which would include things like CatFancy, Ashtray, Goblin, Xbone, and “David Spade”.
10 Pickaxes for only $5!
GENEROUS!
I guess Mario Kart 8 isn’t selling very well. I expected to find it on this list.
I called this. It’s an up-front seller.
I MIGHT get some of the Smash Bros characters if the figures are cool, but probably not pokemon.
C’mon, there’s only 700+ to buy!!!
The ideal place for percussionists.
They’re not called Dummers for nothing.
Fire Emblem: Playing FE:A on Non-perma death mode really neuters the Fire Emblem experience. It’s such a core part of the series that playing without is not even really the same game.
This was precisely my understanding as well.
but I did play Primordial Soup
What?
a game about moving abstract polygons representing cartoonish amoebae through the eponymous primordial soup trying to eat, poop, and not starve
Oh! Maxis’ 1993 release: Unnatural Selection!
Some mutations give players certain powers like making eating (parasitism) or moving (speed) easier
Just like in the real world.
DiceAdmiral@Lusi:
“The Reading Raffle is now a running thing whenever there is a reading”
That makes sense. Maybe a link for the rules on the sidebar then?
“Only three were commissioned. They’re all done!”
Ah, I’d forgotten. I had just become used to putting them in the podcast.
“We were still overtime despite this: the podcast is meant to be an hour long, and we’ve been running well over lately.”
Might I suggest that you not count the reading as part of the hour? It easily takes up the most time except for maybe news, and the people who are looking for a shorter podcast probably turn it off anyways. Maybe if you did the gaming moments before the reading then this would work well.
“I was discussing creating a Lusipurr.com Glossary for the site last night, which would include things like CatFancy, Ashtray, Goblin, Xbone, and “David Spade”.”
That would be a good idea. This site is very self-referential and it can take a good while to get into the swing of things.
“Oh! Maxis’ 1993 release: Unnatural Selection!”
No, I linked to what I meant. That is a pretty decent name for a game though.
Lusipurr@DiceCaptain:
Might I suggest that you not count the reading as part of the hour?
We’re still around the 1h mark for this podcast even so, and *well* over for the past several weeks.
That is a pretty decent name for a game though.
That’s about all that is decent about it.
Nate 'Bup' LilesOne of these days we’ll do another Lusi v. Bup segment. And one of these days I’ll actually be on the podcast again.
LusipurrCue messages of delight/distress from the readers!
James 'Gyme' Pagel@Lusi: I tend to agree with you on strategy RPGs. Tactics Ogre, FF Tactics, and Disgaea are fantastic SRPGs and made me love the genre….except for Fire Emblem.
DiceAdmiralI forgot to comment on that. I enjoy Fire Emblem for the challenge, but I’m also a fan of Tactics Ogre and FF Tactics. TRPGs are my favorite genre, that’s probably why I like the original X-COM so much, it’s a very hardcore tactics game when it’s not busy being a business simulator. It also has perma-death, but the soldiers only have as much character as you imbue upon them yourself.
Ethan 'Ethos' PipherHow are you taking all these pictures of me, DA?
Dancing MattComment comment comment comment. Comment, comment comment? Comment comment comment comment comment comment comment. Comm… ent.
I don’t play RPG’s with permadeath or instant death spells anymore ’cause I just want to get through the game; I don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over again. I have no one but myself to prove myself to, and I know I don’t care. The Final Fantasy Tactics approach to permadeath is more comfortable for me; I like Fire Emblem Awakening just fine for the game it already is without permadeath. If one or two members die, I reset the level ’cause I’m probably get wiped anyways. Comment allez-vous?!
Lusipurr@MattDance: I wouldn’t play Diablo 3 unless there was a Hardcore mode, and the same thing was true of D2 after I ran a couple classes through it. I exclusively play Hardcore characters in D3 now, and have been since before the expansion came out. Endless loot-grind games simply are not fun unless one is risking everything. Then it really does feel like an adventure. One can’t simply charge in, blindly crashing into monsters, dying over and over, until the monsters die instead. There’s an immersion there in keeping yourself alive and being cautious which is utterly absent from the normal mode.
I would probably be playing Borderlands 2 again if there were a Hardcore mode in that game. The fact that it doesn’t have one is, for me, a significant lack of replay value.
Julian 'SiliconNooB' TaylorI concur wholeheartedly with Dancing Matt. I’m happy for people to enjoy their permadeath, but as soon as contending with it becomes compulsory then that’s a dealbreaker for me. There are not enough hours in the day to be resetting my game because a favourite unit has come to strife.
Ethan 'Ethos' PipherI respect permadeath and would partake in the right title, but it’s a hard sell for me.
Drachonusdoes having my 3ds mii’s default message of “www.lusipurr.com” count as advertising the site for you Lusi?
Lusipurr@Drachonus: Nope! First, because the site has no “www.” in its URL, and secondly because that is LAZY and no one looks at that sort of thing!
Julian 'SiliconNooB' TaylorTry crashing into somebody’s parked car and leaving a card that reads ‘lusipurr.com’ in place of insurance details! :D
Andrew 'Mel' MelconBreak into a ship christening ceremony, steal the champagne bottle and yell Lusipurr.com! before breaking it over the hull.
I’m pretty sure that’s legally binding. Try to make sure it’s something big, like a cruise-liner.
Andrew 'Mel' MelconAs to the topic of Fire Emblem and other SRPGs, I think I’m the sort that only likes FE games and not any other SRPGs. However, permadeath is a pretty integral part of that experience for me though I do agree with SN when he says it’s quite time consuming.
Also, I did not really enjoy FE Awakening because of its break from the normal structured formula. You can go anywhere and repeat some encounters and it just felt much less focused. I’m used to being thrown into the next confrontation, but this game gives you a choice. It sounds like a wonderful improvement but in practice it just made me less interested. Weird.
Dancing MattTo each his own! I’m glad that it’s there, and that it’s optional! Similarly I play SMT games on easy cause I don’t want my party instantly wiped out by Mudo on the 3rd level of the dungeon (though it makes it too easy). Long time fans of Fire Emblem and Diablo, who are so used to the game play, need that challenge to be there!
LC11I like both Fire Emblem and other types of strategy games. Part of the appeal of Fire Emblem for me is that in most of the games there is no grinding unlike other SRPGs. It’s much more strategic as opposed to Disgaea or Tactics ogre where you can grind your way to victory. I love Disgaea but sometimes the idea of another 20-30 minute long grinding battle is unappealing.
Lusipurr@LC11: I was not aware of this facet of FE games. Grinding is one of the big turn-offs for me with regard to SRPGs on the whole. As a result, I have to be in the right ‘mood’ to play an SRPG, which really means, “willing to grind for a good long while in order to unlock the skills/classes I want”.
If Fire Emblem can give me a way around that, I may be inclined to give the series another chance.
MelYup, with only two exceptions (Sacred Stones and Awakening) there is no possibility for grinding, and therefore portioning EXP appropriately is a very VERY big part of the strategy. Letting certain units get a kill so they can level, instead of relying on your most potent units is something one must be constantly aware of since there’s no other chances for those weaker units to gain EXP.
Often FE games will saddle the player in the beginning with a very powerful post-promote unit (often termed a “Jagen”, after the first such example in an FE game) that helps in a pinch but has the worst stat growths. Relying on this unit will probably result in a reset later on.
The uniqueness of each unit is something I always liked about (most) FE games, and I usually reset if one dies not because it’s a big problem but because I want to see their story arc completed. On top of the stellar writing Intelligent Systems brings to the table, it’s made FE one of the few handheld games series I really love.
LusipurrWhat is the ‘best’ FE experience overall? I would like to pick one up and give it a crack again.
To clarify: I’m not looking for the best ‘beginner’ FE experience. I can figure out the systems and such well enough without that. I’m looking for the best FE game as judged by people who are fans of the series.
MelSo there are 12 main series entries, about half of those never made it out of Japan. Of the ones that did, the first one for the GBA, simply called Fire Emblem, is probably what a lot of people will say is the best one.
The one on the GameCube and Wii are also pretty good, but the Wii one has some balancing issues that makes that game a bit too easy later on (but the opening of that game is actually one of THE hardest of the US releases, weirdly. The US version is harder than the JP version.)
I think it’s worth noting that there really isn’t a “beginner” Fire Emblem for the US, so had you recommended that I’d honestly just say “pick any one”.
SiliconNooBI referred to Awakening as a beginner Fire Emblem, but only because I CHOSE to play it on normal difficulty, and only because I CHOSE to play it with permadeath switched off. If I didn’t do these things then it would have probably made for quite a hardcore experience.
Lusipurr@SN: TINY, BABY MAN! You’re going to lose your Bruce credentials, at this rate!
SiliconNooBImpossible, I’m Australian! ^_^
MelActually, I had forgotten about those options in the newest FE game. I guess it would make for the easiest entry in the series. Between the friendly options and the inherent ability to re-run certain battles (and with all the side missions) it’s very easy to be in a comfortable position the whole game.
Personally, I think that kinda killed it for me. Wanting to do all the side content left me feeling a bit over capable, and all the downloadable content and throw-back characters that you can use made it all feel impersonal. For instance, Marth is in the game but he’s not real, he’s like a ghost image of Marth you can use on your team if you unlock him but he doesn’t interact with other characters, or with the plot in any way. Which is another big part of FE, building up support conversations. It’s handled differently in every game and the benefits are also different each time, but it’s always worthwhile.
