Oh my god, this exactly describes how I played the game. Every night for about 3 months after it came out, I would play it whenever I took a shit, and then like an hour and a half before I went to bed. I'm really hoping that I have as much fun with PQ2.
Glad to see I'm not the only person who can't stand the boredom of taking a dump. The terlet is my second most effecting reading and gaming spot, behind my amazing, amazing bed.
Since I feel like it:
+ The five-magic system.
+ The weapon-tile system.
- Equipment menus. At least it continues the Puzzle Quest concept of infuriatingly clunky gameplay for everything other than Bejeweled++(2).
+ Monster AI, and the unique monster system. (Goblins are usually Goblins, a generic build, and sometimes you run into a named Goblin with different skills and AI; not a boss monster, or even a sub-boss, it seems, just some variety spice.)
+ The AI is good, but...
- ...starting at about level 6, the computer will stop making stupid moves at all, and will almost always hint you with the "right" options (which I had to turn off since it was kind of ruining the game for me) and will make it's own moves "correctly." But... (...!)
+ The game isn't nearly as unforgiving as the original. I don't know what difficulty I played PQ1 on. Through no fault of my own, I lost more than one battle because the opponent went first, and was like, "Ha, idiot," then clears the board, gaining mana and rounds, then slaughter me before I had a chance to... play. Now a minor misstep has similarly minor consequences - usually - and thus isn't as unforgivingly brutal. (I'm playing on Hard, for the record.)
- I'm still fighting Goblins and Goblin Witches and Goblin Pied Pipers and shit, and I'm in the second dungeon. Isn't that when new, thematically appropriate monsters should appear?
- The map is shitty in the same way it is in the original, in a new implementation. I still fucking hate watching my dude walk across so many screens. Yes, it's a double standard that I don't feel this way about, oh, every other RPG ever. PQ2 is still just the same "walk between minigames" of PQ1. It's much, much more mindless than it needs to be.
+ Skippable cutscenes!
- I don't know if it's because my DSi XL's microSD has been full forever, but in complicated situations in-game it has to stop for a while to load the "GET ANOTHER TURN" animation, and then to show me the hint (before I turned them off), even moreso when the CPU needs to make a decision.
(Fucking insomnia.)
mk.2 said:
Does anyone know how the defense system works?
It seem that I still get the same damages, no matter how many points I put into defense.
And what is the green minus number that occasionally pop up after dealing damages? I notice that it sometime decreases damage taken, sometime does nothing.
I thought it reduced one point for every 10 (armor points + defense points). But that's wrong.
Note that there are skills - awesome skills like the Assassin's Stealth - that directs damage to mana pools instead of to health.
The numbers that pop up - I assume you mean the green ones under the red damage numbers) is the number of damage that your armor and effects reduced. 10 (-7) means you took three damage from that source.
GeekyGuy said:
Fine with me, as you would get so little from matching gems in CotW.
Agreed. I just had equipment and innate skills to begin with enough mana to just throw skills at everything, always. I only interacted with the board when I could nuke stuff to keep the opponent from getting mana, haha.
QUOTE(dysan @ Jun 25 2010, 08:10 PM)
just played it today for a while and I gotta say...I think the 1st was a bit better...I liked the anime-comic style of the 1st more,the realistic look of the 2nd still works but comic style was better imo.