Let's Play / Master Classes Archive

Doing an RPG LP has sapped all interest in reading any of the others, so powerful was its drain on my soul. ;p It was fun (and LOM's quest setup helped this a lot) to do the regular updates, but by the time I was done I was done. I'm keeping up with Dawn of War because it's an interesting RTS that I never really got a chance to play, and Boktai because I LOVE BOKTAI but that's it.

On the other hand, I don't get the compulsion that a person feels to read every LP. Some games just aren't going to do it for you. That's okay! If the writer is doing it for the prestige/fame they are stupid, and you shouldn't be feeding that anyway.

I hope to see more action-y or shorter LP in the future. Also: nuts-and-bolts mechanics. Everyone'd played FF1, but learning all the weird programming quirks was freakin' awesome. Not every game has that, but I think the wrong lesson was learned from the FF1 LP. ;P

I try to stick to slower paced games for my LPs because I don't have a USB controller, and action games are hard to play with a keyboard.

Also, I tend to mainly read the LPs for games I've played before, since then I know all the what-all about what happens in the game and can make a contribution as an observer.

Well, technically I haven't played Pokemon Gold or Emerald, but I am familiar enough with the series to still read them.

Cancel me out for Advance Wars, I've sort of lost interest in that one.

Would anybody be interested in a challenge run of Half-Life 2? I was thinking maybe crowbar, gravity gun, RPG and grenades would be tricky.

Edit: That's it, put me down for this one. I've got an idea to make it more interesting, which I'm not sure I've seen here yet.

This.

It's worth noting that the only reason I could do an LP of Dawn of War is the replay feature that's compulsory for modern RTS titles. Many other real-time and action games don't have this kind of thing built in.

Out of curiosity, Nunix, how did you handle screenshotting fights in Legend of Mana?

...which lesson would this be? That everyone has already played the games we're talking about, or something else?

Poorly? I dunno, the battles aren't that interesting and are generally over quick anyway. I mashed the screencapture key a whole bunch, especially when I knew it was gearing up for a special attack or something. The ANIMATIONS are great and beautiful and cool, but they're not so exciting (or easy to get) in a still shot.


In me ever so humble opinion? That RPGs are the type of game to do. I think FF1 worked because everyone had played it, it's got huge geek nostalgia value, and then Brick threw all of that out and got into some of the funky programming quirks.

I liked how LOM started out, there was lots of branching and things to check out, a lot of people had played some but not all, et cetera.. but by the end it was just a linear slog, and I'm pretty critical of how I did on the thread, so I don't want to make it out to sound like I'm exempt from this.

Anyway! Maybe everyone really digs two-month-long RPG Let's Plays and I should just stuff it, and so I shall.

I really liked the whole LoM LP, though admittedly this was partly from super nostalgia for the game and being pumped to see the few quests I'd never managed to hit in my own original playthrough. On the other hand, I could kind of tell *you* were getting burnt out on the thing towards the end, which I'm sure sapped some of the fun out of it. Maybe the real lesson is don't be afraid to take a brief hiatus from a long game if you need it... though I guess the danger there is never finding the motivation to finish it off.

So, I was wondering if it was possible to get a slot in the queue for Ys 3/Oath in Felghana in early to mid September? I have the Ys 3 stuff mostly done (a couple updates are written, and nearly all the screenshots are taken), so I'd just have to do the Oath in Felghana part, since the way I envision it would be showing a dungeon in Ys 3, and then the same dungeon in Oath, alternating. Both games are fairly short as well, so it shouldn't take too long to finish either.

How does September 7th sound?

That sounds awesome.

God, I'm not even close to done with Tombs and Treasure, and I'm already picking out what I want for my next Lets Play. I should maybe not choose so many short games. These things can get addicting.

Anyhow, put me down tentatively for the NES incarnations of G.I.Joe and Gemfire.

Just tentatively, mind, as I'm not sure which I'd like to end up doing.

I know exactly what you mean, I still have a while till I can even start my Let's Play, and I've already decided on what I want to do next. And started playing it to make sure I know all the ins and outs, so it's not totally boring.

Guys, the reason the FF1 LP was a hit was because it was the first one and it was shiny and new.

If TheSL had started this craze with his DQ thing, and I did FF1 a few months later, it would not have been nearly so popular.

Brick, you're not going to get anywhere with these foolish concepts of "humility."

But those two were the best ones, the Lets Play to which all aspire.

You logic is flawed, and useless.

Okay Let's Play overlords, sign me up for SRT: W for the DS. Since I actually enjoy this game, I'll finish a LP on it this time.

Exactly. In both the FF1 and DQ Let's Play's, you basically gave master classes on how to play, and I actually learned a lot about games that I've played for decades.

I think I may love you for this.

By the way, is Trombe in W? It's hard to keep track sometimes.

Any chance of me sneaking in September 1st? I'd like to do a one-week run of the skirmish/scenario modes of Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon.

Gah! Stupid site errors made updating this a pain. Sorry 'bout that.

Took me a while to figure out what the acronym meant. :P Anyway, I added you to the list. I take it that FF:MQ has been abandoned, or are you considering restarting it in the future?

I added you for August 31st to keep the Sunday scheduling, but feel free to start on the 1st if you'd like to.

And on a final note, I'd like to make a claim for Star Fox (Star Fox 64, if I can make it work)*, and would like to add Final Fantasy Tactics (SCC) to the requests list for the time being.

*Not dropping Bahamut Lagoon, by the way - expect an update sometime this week, possibly tomorrow, though it'll be on temporary hiatus until September-ish so I can refine how I'll approach it.

I was going to wait till the Ys one was finished before proposing another game, but I see that other people are picking multiple games so I'd like to do Sorcerian at some point in the future, if the Ys one goes over well.

Sure. There isn't an exact rule on the number of claims that can be made at one time, but I honestly don't see a problem with it. As long as it's not something obscene like five or six, holding onto a couple of claims shouldn't be problematic, so long as the claimer-in-question is willing to talk things out in case of a conflict of interests.

Nah, W takes place in an alternate universe/timeline from the console/OG games. You do get a transformable jet ala Macross Valkyrie as your main original unit, and you can join with the mothership to form a giant robo.

Yeah, Mystic Quest is toast, since I don't think I have it in me to write up that oh so crappy prose again.

EDIT: Also, for anyone who's interested, I'll probably run this particular LP like Alixsar's OB64 one since they're both TRPGs. You guys will also get to rename the main's mech, the mothership, the main himself and his family name/callsign, and I'm pretty sure you can rename the main's mech's attacks as well. You could in J, and W's not terribly different mechanically. You'll also get to call the shots generally about how we handle pilot and mech upgrades, enhancement parts, etc., and if you guys want to go for the secret stuff, we can do that too. The Lightning Striker Pack is a pain in the ass to get though, so I may need to cheat for that one if you guys want it. :P

Well, I definitely do want to do Simlife, but doing it at the same time as Spore is released won't happen as I didn't realize that was so soon.

Anyway, if you could put me in the queue it's be great. I'll have a better idea of the time once the Mario is Missing one is done.

All right, I've finished playing Tombs and Treasures and can safely say I want to do Gemfire next. It seems like it would lend itself convieniently to interactivity, and I've got some good ideas of how to run it.

Now to spend the mean time actually playing the game so I'll have some sort of knowledge to offer as I Lets Play it.

Well, as long as we're putting in multiple claims...

FE7 won't be finished for quite a while (end of the month, probably), but the game I'll do afterwards is probably going to end up being quite a bit lighter, since that coincides with classes (and work-study) restarting for me. I've got a couple ideas, but I'll throw them out there to see if anyone has any preferences:

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Kirby Super Star (this was my original plan, but with Kirby Super Star Ultra coming out at the end of September, I'm not sure how an LP of the original would be received)
Any of the three Donkey Kong Countries

I'd like to do another JRPG someday, but not until after I've got my new schedule in order, I don't think. So fight it out, and I'll go ahead and reserve the winner.

I'd love to see you do Super Mario RPG to be honest - it's light, easy and fun and a lot of people would get a kick out of it being done. Also, it benefits from the LP format better than the other two, as Super Star's multi-modes would just feel disconnected and attention deficit while DKC doesn't really lend itself to commentary as well as the others.

So, uh, yeah. Super Mario RPG is my vote.

I'd just like to mention I'm pretty excited about this and may have to finish my replay of W when you start. But I'm curious how you're actually going to take screenshots and such. DS emulators didn't seem to work very well last time I checked. Are you using some kind of R4 shenanigans?

I too am interested in the answer to "how to take decent shots of a DS game", since it impacts my ability to potentially do my crazy moon-language Mushishi LP somewhere down the line. If we need to discuss anything at length, though, it should probably go in the tech thread instead of here.

no$gba as of the 2.61 release takes screenies very well. It may depend on the game though. All you do is hit Print Screen and paste the shot in an image editor of your choice. It grabs both screens with a small border between them.