Feo Takahari

The most likely interpretation of your remark is that you're joking about such an unlikely combination of genres. If you have in fact heard of Sweet Home, the RPG that TV Tropes claims was also the first survival horror game, good on you for your knowledge and your reference. Myself, just from what TV Tropes has to say about the game, I suspect those genres should never be combined again.

What? I thought I got 100 in A1 and A2. (I did every last little quest.)

I dunno. It's pretty funny to watch Deceased Crab's LP of Eversion as he starts to wonder why the scenery is getting darker. (This is the same Eversion I have in my signature.)

I lasted six episodes, but the compulsion to replay the game became irresistible. I'm writing this in between clearing the Hills of Jars and my planned assault on the Pentil Plains

Am I the only one who liked that system? The overall weight limits were higher, so I could give my agent heavy armor, then not pick up anything until I'd killed every enemy in the region. Fun times . . .

Heust Blade (the "depressed warrior servile") can be really, really useful, but only if you get him when you're at a much lower level than you would normally be at the time you reach him. (He's in the Pit of Misfits, north of Rising. I recommend heading in that direction when you're about level 18, but fighting as little as possible--I was level 25 when I reached him, which was just about perfect.) If you get him later, he'll still have good offense, but his low level will be strongly reflected in his HP totals, meaning it'll be a chore to keep him alive.

I recall an experiment in which genes for . . . I don't remember what, but the eye of something weird . . . were used in a fly in place of the fly's eye genes. It grew "normal" (that is to say, fly) eyes. Messing with genes profitably is hard.

Gatlingers are simply the most irritating enemies I could think of offhand in FF4. As for why the game is tedious in general, I've never been fond of random encounters with endlessly respawning foes. I realize I'm in the minority, but I still say there's something peculiarly pointless about slaughtering one monster after another for the sake of levelling up, but knowing there'll be just as many monsters left when you're done. Of course, this is a feature of the entire FF series--FF4 is only more tedious because, at least in the GBA version, special attacks and spells take a very long time to power up, so most of the time you're better off mashing "attack" over and over and over . . . But anyways, chitrachs stay dead when killed, and bows and spells deal with them just as well as melee attacks.

I suppose for me it was the Demonic Depot in G2. I didn't build my character very well, but I could get through most areas by wit, and by ambushing individual enemies. Turned out an individual rotgroth was more than capable of massacring me even by the endgame. (Yeah, I did a lot of sneaking around in the final areas.)

 

Mind you, I can't think of anything in the Geneforge series as tedious as some of the fights in Avernum 4, and even Avernum 4 was less tedious than, say, Final Fantasy IV. (Forget Chitrachs--Gatlingers must DIE!)

I'm another who likes the Trakovite ideology but doesn't think it's realistic. Though come to think of it, we're talking about a game where glowing goo alters your DNA and dogs spit acid--is realism relevant?

 

If we're going for realism, I might as well add that I don't see how Shapers and creations could live in harmony if more creations were being made for purposes of labor. For that matter, given that the serviles weren't supposed to be intelligent and were supposed to enjoy their work, it would be risky to try making more "dumb" creations in case something else went wrong.

Come to think of it, you could probably lure some summoned monsters next to the platform and cast wall of blades. Of course, since you don't want to attack your own summons, you'd have to do this BEFORE killing Sulfras.

I thought it was a bit uninspired to have everything degenerate into such a morally grey bloodbath. If I wanted to depress the hell out myself, I'd play I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. Then again, there's really no getting around the fact that if you're going to make a game about slaughtering people, those slaughtered must either be evil (which is unrealistic when there are a large number of them) or not be evil (which necessarily gets depressing, unless the intended audience is borderline psychopathic a la Manhunt.)

You might have noticed that when recruited characters level up, their HP and Energy increase, but their Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Endurance don't. This means that unless they're really powerful (like Heust Blade, or a glowing drayk I've heard of but never managed to find) they tend to stink after a few levels, particularly in regards to hit and damage. Since they drain away valuable experience, you're better off without most of them.

This gets pretty funny, actually. I remember an argument that the main character in G3 dies immediately and is replaced by another Shaper who does things you can't do.

I'm guessing the problem is that a lot of us don't have the more esoteric sourcebooks lying around. Hell, I don't have any of the sourcebooks, having only played Neverwinter Nights. (Though that game itself might give some hints for how not to balance a Shaper, considering how overpowered the Shifter is even on its own. Don't make the creations too cool, unless they're cryoas!)

I need to be summarized? I'm mildly offended.

Just picked up a French novel called Cosmos Incorporated, by the same fellow who gave us the book that reportedly was absolutely butchered to make the movie Babylon A.D. It looks to be really, really good, but I'd like to complain to the translator--if a word isn't in Webster's Unabridged (Deluxe Edition), you have no business using it without proper context (e.g. a pun about "intramediary intermediaries.") Also read a moderately mind-blowing bit of slipstream called The Physiognomy, a subpar supernatural thriller entitled The Hour Before Dark, and the Russian import Roadside Picnic. That last deserves special mention--I happened to know ahead of time what it was adapted into, but an unprepared reader who also plays a lot of computer games might flip their lid when they start seeing references to "stalkers," "batteries," and "witches' jelly."

In any game in the series, there's a circle around you in which you can pick up nearby items. In the third game, a similar circle extends around other party members, though items go to your inventory only. When you pick up an item that doesn't belong to you, the game checks to see whether you're within view of a friendly NPC--but it doesn't check on anyone else, so the "get" command will let you freely steal items in public view if a party member is by them and you're in hiding. Note that since you weren't expected to be able to do this, you can get access to items that were put out for aesthetic purposes and that you shouldn't actually have at the level you're at. (Incidentally, this doesn't work in the fourth game.)

Though come to think of it, this might be a good way for Jeff to turn a quick profit. Something similar was tried for Neverwinter Nights, and I think it worked.

Also note that you can use the nephil artifacts to kill him, even if you don't take advantage of the trick to bring them out of the dungeon.

Aagh, should have remembered Daze. I was just running away from them, and they kept catching up and trying to punch me. Not that they could actually hit me.

Found a collection of cartoons the New Yorker wouldn't publish, for reasons I'll leave to the inquisitive reader.

''That'' was it! As for the question on whether the spider was plot-significant: no, it was in a side room standing near a gemstone. Killing it just made it easier to get the gemstone, which you could then sell for a bit of cash that wasn't really all that necessary anyways.

I can't remember the title, but the one game I've tried with this system was a good example of the downside--I want to get something more than a bit of excess cash from killing that giant spider that takes 10 hits to die and can kill me in 2! (This was some game that takes place entirely underground, with you as an amnesiac trying to prevent a god of evil from returning and killing everyone for no apparent reason.)

But wait. I've seen other players say that Mental Magic becomes extremely useful on Torment, but is merely a gimmick on Easy.